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2004-12-17 Home Front: WoT

Military desertion rates down since 2001

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Posted by Steve 2004-12-17 11:24:22 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Oh noooo...

More bad news for the left/fifth column.

Posted by badanov 2004-12-17 11:38:14 AM|| [http://www.rkka.org] 2004-12-17 11:38:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 This is such a nothing story. Whether it's 5500 or whether it's 4500 equals the same thing-a miniscule percentage of the military desert. What's more relevant to point out to the general public is that desertions since the beginning of time happen every year, with a slight upward movement during wartime. Every large business has employees leaving on short notice or with no notice, and a large organization like the military is no different. But now the left will see an opening and they will come back with "but, but the Navy has not released their desertion numbers because obviuosly those numbers are soooo high" and then the DOD has to follow up with new numbers which will be printed on page 26 of the life style section and before you know it the important points that desertions are a fact of life and represent a miniscule percentage is lost in the war of numbers.

Posted by joeblow 2004-12-17 12:19:52 PM|| 2004-12-17 12:19:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 If you think about it, there is always a percentage of the general population who just don't want to work. Why would the military population be any different? In some ways you would think the desertion ratio would be higher since a good number of people do actually join the military for lack of other alternatives. I guess what I am getting at is this: Less than 1% of the military population deserts even though it is one of the most stressful, thankless jobs around. More people than that leave their jobs at McDonalds. I had a point in there some where, but lost it. I'm brain-fried due to a huge IT project. So I'll shut up now and just say this:

Thanks to all our Troops and to their Spouses and Families! You make us a proud.

Posted by AllahHateMe 2004-12-17 2:41:33 PM|| 2004-12-17 2:41:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 That number still seems high to me if the term "desertion" as defined by Article 85 of the UCMJ is applied. The person would have to INTEND to permanently absent himself from his unit or quit his unit with intent to avoid hazardous duty or important service.

Posted by GK 2004-12-17 3:45:33 PM|| 2004-12-17 3:45:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 In my 24 years in the Air Force, I had one guy desert. He got a "Dear John" letter from his girl friend and cracked. Went home to his folks, problem was his folks now lived in Canada. After a couple of months of talking to him on the phone, he gave himself up. Since he was a first termer, he got booted for "unable to conform".
The story also points out that a lot of these deserters bailed because of "criminal acts", meaning they bugged out before they were arrested for some other crime. That kind of skews the numbers, I'd be interested to see the data of what percentage that was. I'll wager it's over 50%.

Posted by Steve 2004-12-17 4:03:04 PM|| 2004-12-17 4:03:04 PM|| Front Page Top

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