Texas National Guard Spc. Carl Webb is on the run, a deserter in the eyes of the Army, a disgrace to former comrades and a coward to many of his countrymen because he refused deployment to Iraq.
3rd Infantry Division Sgt. Kevin Benderman turned himself in this month to face military justice after he said he was unwilling to go back for a second tour.
82nd Airborne Pvt. Jeremy Hinzman waits in Canada for immigration officials to decide whether to grant him political asylum after he left the United States rather than fight in what he considered an unjust war in Iraq.
Between 5,000 and 6,000 U.S. military personnel are listed as deserters by the armed services, typically meaning they have been absent without leave from their unit for more than 30 days.
Not all who desert do so to avoid combat, and the overwhelming majority end up back in the hands of the military, where they can face discipline ranging from loss of pay to prison time.
"Most Americans are serving their country admirably and honorably," said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty. "On average, the number of soldiers who desert is less than 1 percent, and the vast majority of soldiers who do desert do so because they have committed some criminal act and are on the lam, not for political or conscientious objector purposes."
But as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, counselors, anti-war activists and others who work with military families report a surge in calls from soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines seeking help to withdraw from the service.
A growing number of soldiers and Marines in the all-volunteer force are seeking to be declared conscientious objectors. Applications rose to 92 in 2003 from 31 in 2002. Of the 92, 77 were approved.
More calls to hot line
Meanwhile, the GI Rights Hotline, a nonprofit group that advises service members, says its annual phone calls increased to 32,000 last year from 17,000 in 2001.
Many came from young enlistees who found the armed forces to be far different from what recruiters promised. Many also came from reservists upset about having to leave their homes, families and businesses; National Guardsmen who never expected to deploy overseas; and soldiers and Marines kept on active duty past their anticipated discharge date because of troop shortages.
About 15 percent of calls come from what hot line volunteer and anti-war activist Steve Morse described as conscientious objectors. Some were like Webb. They had no intention of going to Iraq and refused to fight in a war they did not support.
Others were combat veterans like Benderman. They'd already spent one tour in Iraq and didn't want to go back.
Unlike Vietnam, where only volunteers served a second tour, many of today's armed forces members are being ordered to return for a second or even third tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. And in a war theater where rocket attacks, roadside ambushes and suicide bombers are a constant threat, many spend their entire tour in constant danger with little chance to relax.
As a result, Morse believes, many of those he hears from suffer from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.
"There's this combination of being traumatized by being over there ... then having to go again," Morse said. "So they're deserting.
"Many people don't (desert) lightly, and they would like to do right by the country. But they see what's going on, and they can't do it. A lot of these calls ... they're suicidal or depressed."
Reasons for desertions
A report in 2002 by the Army Research Institute found that the reasons for desertion centered on family, personal or financial problems or the inability to adjust to military life. The report found that most deserters tended to be less educated, came from broken homes and often exhibited delinquent behavior as youths. Most served in the lower enlisted ranks, worked in combat-related jobs and were most likely to desert while in transit or on leave.
The Personnel Control Facility at Fort Knox collected information from more than 12,000 Army deserters from 1997 to 2001. Nearly two-thirds listed family problems or a failure to adapt to the armed forces as their reason for deserting. Financial problems and issues with the chain of command also ranked high. It's unknown what impact three years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, long-term call-ups of National Guard troops and the decision by the military to force people to stay beyond their scheduled separation date have had on those numbers. Pentagon officials said they were unaware of any more recent desertion studies.
"A big gamble"
Webb, 39, an Army veteran, enlisted in the National Guard in 2001, after a 7-year break from the armed forces. He expected to serve for only three years. But in July, less than two months shy of his service completion date, the military told Webb that under the stop-loss program he would serve 525 more days and that his unit was being deployed to Iraq.
When his Guard unit, the 56th Regimental Combat Team, reported to Fort Hood in August for training, Webb, a medic, stayed away. He did the same when the unit left in January for Iraq.
"The decision not to go was no struggle at all," said Webb, a licensed practical nurse who currently has no job. "I've been opposed to this war from the start."
Webb, who's divorced, considered fleeing to Mexico or Canada but said he couldn't live with the possibility he might never see his elderly mother again. He contacted an anti-war group who provided him with another option. They told him to wait until the armed forces officially declared him a deserter, then turn himself in and request that he be discharged in lieu of a court-martial.
"It's a big gamble," Webb said. "Theoretically, I could turn myself in at Fort Knox, they would give me a slap on the hand, a bad conduct discharge and take away all my benefits as a veteran, but basically they would let me go. The gamble part is they could be really vindictive and court-martial me."
Webb mentioned the case of Camilo Mejia, a Florida National Guard staff sergeant who refused to return to Iraq after a leave. He was court-martialed in May and sentenced to a year in prison.
"He only got one year in jail," Webb said. "That's better than the two years in Iraq he was facing."
Refusing to return
Meanwhile, Benderman, 40, continues to report to work daily at Fort Stewart, Ga., while he waits for word on whether he will be court-martialed for desertion and failure to report for deployment.
Benderman said he was deeply disturbed by the death, destruction and inhumanity he saw during his first six-month combat tour in Iraq and now believes that war is immoral. He refused to go when his unit left for a second tour in Iraq in January.
The 10-year Army veteran appeared for a preliminary hearing this month, and a decision on whether the case will proceed is expected within the week. He also has applied as a conscientious objector.
He and his wife, Monica, know a prison sentence is possible. He could face seven years if convicted, although most of the prison sentences in recent similar cases have been a year or less.
"We don't have any doubt about what happened, why and how things are and our reasons for what we do. So it's not really stressful to us," Monica Benderman said. "We knew what the consequences might be, but we also knew if we made the right choice, it would work out the best way for us."
Waiting in Canada
A Canadian tribunal could rule next month on the fate of Hinzman, 26. The Immigration and Refugee Board will decide whether to grant the paratrooper refugee status, which would allow him to stay in Canada to avoid prosecution in the United States.
"Jeremy is an extremely serious person," said his lawyer, Jeffry House, who represents a dozen American military deserters in Canada. "He takes his responsibility as a human very seriously. And his conscience eventually told him he couldn't participate in this war as a combatant."
In 2002, just before his unit deployed to Afghanistan, Hinzman applied for conscientious objector status and asked that he be allowed to serve in a non-combatant capacity as a medic. The Army denied his request.
Hinzman, a South Dakota native, returned home from Afghanistan. In January 2004, just weeks before his combat unit was to deploy to Iraq, Hinzman, his wife and then-year-old son drove to Toronto, where a Quaker family took them in.
They live in an apartment and await their fate.
Since the Iraq invasion, House said he's had contact with between 100 and 120 U.S. military members who sought his counsel on seeking asylum in Canada.
"I have to tell them, 'You can come up and make a refugee claim, but it's by no means a sure thing,'" House said.
Hanging in legal limbo
In recent years, some of the services have tried harder to reintegrate deserters into their units.
The Army was forced to confront the issue when the number of deserters more than tripled between 1995 and 2001, to 4,739. Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, regulations changed. Rather than shipping deserters off to Fort Knox or Fort Sill to await military justice, the Army now returns them to their unit, where discipline is left to the unit commander. The unit commander can retain and rehabilitate the person, separate him or her from service or seek a court-martial. Each case is evaluated on its merits.
"They want to give them some punishment just to let everybody else know you just can't walk and nothing will happen," said Morse of the GI Rights Hotline. "But on the other hand, they don't want to lose that person as a soldier. Their primary thing is if that person comes back, they want to make sure that that person gets deployed."
For now, Webb hangs in a sort of legal limbo. His unit sent notice early last month that he had been declared a deserter and faced prosecution if arrested. Normally, notification of his deserter status would be forwarded to Fort Knox, where the Army maintains deserter records. Webb said he calls Fort Knox often but is told that the documentation has not been filed.
He's been given legal advice not to turn himself in until the paper work shows up to ensure that he qualifies for punishment that includes discharge.
"I would actually feel better if I had come here, turned myself in and they had made a decision on whether to lock me up or not," he said.
He knows that some deserters stay on the lam for years, but he can't see himself doing that.
"I could go back to Texas and go back to work but always have this over my shoulder," he said. "I'd rather have closure, whether positive or negative. Now, even though I'm kind of free, I'm not exactly free because I never know when a police car is going to pull me over and say, 'Hey, we've got a warrant out for you.'"
He knows some might not understand his stance. He believes many of his comrades support his decision. He doesn't consider himself a coward.
"Were the guys who fought in the Confederate army cowards when they deserted? Were the guys who fought in the Nazi army cowards when they deserted? I'm not a pacifist. There are times I would fight in a war. I won't kill if I feel I'm on the wrong side. This is a war about oil and profits. It's not about bringing democracy to anybody.
"I'm not a coward. I would fight in a lot of conflicts. I want to fight and die for the right cause."
Of the Post-Dispatch, 02/19/2005
Reporter Phillip O'Connor
E-mail: poconnor@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8321
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