AWOL and Desertion

Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL), called Unauthorized Absence (UA) in the Navy, is defined in Article 86, UCMJ, as the status of "Any member of the armed forces who, without authority, (1) fails to go to his appointed place of duty at the time prescribed; (2) goes from that place; or (3) absents himself or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty at which he is required to be at the time prescribed."

After 30 days, the member is dropped from company rolls and is declared a deserter for administrative purposes. His or her name is turned over to the FBI, and the company commander may request a replacement.

Desertion. (UCMJ Article 85). Absence of more than 30 days may lead to being convicted of desertion, however. For a charge to stick, the prosecution normally must show the member intended to stay away forever. Evidence would include that the defendant deliberately destroyed his or her uniforms or ID card, or changed his or her name or SSN. Other evidence could be written or oral remarks of intent to remain absent or failing to turn oneself in when given the chance, or moving to a foreign country and remaining absent for many years.

Quitting one's unit, organization, or place of duty" with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service" is also considered desertion. In time of war, a convicted deserter can be sentenced to death. For legal purposes, though, "time of war" is not simply when US forces are engaged in battle, as they have been dozens of times since 1940, and continuously since 2001. The phrase has different interpretations under law, depending on context. The UCMJ does not define it, but in cases of desertion, it is probably limited to when Congress has officially declared war. In other words, WWII (December 8, 1941, to September 2, 1945) but nothing since. An "authorization to use military force," as with Korea, Vietnam, and all the excursions since doesn't count as time of war, according to most authorities.

The last man executed for desertion, Private Eddie Slovik, was the first since the Civil War. He had been arrested for petty crimes several times as a teenager and had thus been classified 4-F. until late 1943, as the war required more and more men to replace those killed or too severely injured. He was drafted in early 1944 and sent to France that August. There, he went AWOL repeatedly in an attempt to be discharged. He wasn't the only one trying to get out of the Army that way. In fact, he was executed in an effort to deter others. The Army had developed a massive problem with desertion at the time he was arrested. According to a 1948 report by JAG Colonel C. Robert Bard, "During the period 1 January 1942 through 30 June 1948, 2,864 Army personnel were tried for desertion. Of these, forty-nine were sentenced to death,' but only Slovik"s sentence was carried out. He was executed by firing squad January 31, 1945, three weeks after his appeal to General Eisenhower was denied. The other forty-nine had their sentences reduced as the result of various reviews. According to The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II, by Charles Glass (2013, Penguin Books), 150,000 American and British soldiers deserted in the European Theater and "about 38,000 American officers and men were court-martialed for seeking to avoid hazardous duty.'

WWII is often referred to as the "Good War," but for hundreds of thousands of American men and boys, being drafted simply meant being pulled off their farms or out of their small towns or big cities or off their jobs and away from their girlfriends or wives and families and sent to some far-away place to shoot and be shot at by people they had never heard of before.

The DoD listed 503,926 as deserters between July 1, 1966, and December 31, 1973. There were at least another 1.5 million shorter-term AWOLs, as reported by Lawrence M. Baskir and William A. Strauss in Chance and Circumstance: the Draft, the War, and the Vietnam Generation (Knopf, 1978). The rate of desertion grew from 3,177 cases (1.6 percent of the armed forces) in FY 1965 to 79,027 (7.4 percent) in FY 1971. ⁱⁱ

The DoD Special Discharge Review Program (SDRP), like the Ford Clemency Program (FCP) preceding it, defined the Vietnam era as Aug. 4, 1964 (the date of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution), through March 28, 1973 (when the last American ground troops were withdrawn). The official termination date for the era is May 7, 1975, the date by which all forces had left. During this period, there were more than 507,000 incidents of desertion within the military."When this figure is adjusted for multiple incidents by the same individual, there were about 444,000 individual deserters. . . . Desertion was indeed a serious problem during the Vietnam era.' For the Army alone, there were at least 367,000 incidents and 322,000 individuals.' ⁱⁱⁱ

ⁱ https://www.americanheritage.com/example-private-slovik
ⁱⁱ The Ford Foundation, Veterans, Deserters, And Draft-Evaders --The Vietnam Decade --, Jnformation Paper, September 1974 and https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/crime-and-law-enforcement/desertion
ⁱⁱⁱ Research Report 122, Characteristics Of Army Deserters In The DoD Special Discharge Review Program, D. Bruce Bell, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, October 1979. Research Report 122, Characteristics Of Army Deserters In The DoD Special Discharge Review Program, D. Bruce Bell, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, October 1979. https://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a078601.pdf

Types of Courts-Martialⁱ

A Special Court-Martial consists of a military judge, trial counsel (prosecutor), defense counsel, and a minimum of three officers sitting as a panel (jury). The defendant may request the panel be at least one-third enlisted personnel (who tend to be tougher on the accused than officers are) or by a judge alone. He or she may be also be represented at his own expense by civilian counsel, either solely or along with military counsel. The SCM's maximum penalty is six months confinement at hard labor, reduction to the lowest grade, forfeiture of 2/3 pay for six months, and a Bad Conduct Discharge. In 1967, there were 34,735 Specials. In 1970, because of an increased military population and more resistance to the Vietnam war, there were 41,348.

General Courts-martial (GCM). may order the maximum punishment set for each offense under the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM). These may include a Dishonorable (DD) or Bad Conduct Discharge (BCD) for enlisted personnel or Dismissal for officers, and several other forms of punishment, including confinement for life, and execution. In 1970, there were 2628 GMs. There have been no executions since 1961, when an epileptic, 7th-grade-dropout African American soldier was hanged, six years after having been convicted of first-degree child rape and attempted first-degree murder while drunk. ⁱⁱ.

Although much of its trappings (right to counsel, speedy trial, being informed of charges) are nearly the same as in civilian law, the purpose of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as with everything else in the armed forces, is to further the military mission. In fact, the UCMJ is part of the Executive Branch (under the President), not the Judicial Branch.

Constitutional protections are afforded only if they do not get in the way of whatever the military says is military necessity. ⁱⁱⁱ In a few particulars, personnel may have somewhat broader safeguards than do civilians, but in other areas, such as search and seizure, right to confront accuser and witnesses, bail, right to a transcript, and privacy, they have fewer. Federal courts can be asked to step in only in rare circumstances and normally only after all processes under military law have been exhausted. In the late 1960s and early 70’s, though, civilian attorneys were successful in affectuating the release of conscientious objector discharge applicants whose applications had been unlawfully denied.

Besides courts- martial, there are nonjudicial punishments under Article 15. ^iv Administered by a member's commanding officer, they are used to deal with relatively minor infractions. The commander is the sole judge of guilt or innocence. The accused may present a defense and be represented only by a non-lawyer but has the right to consult a lawyer beforehand. He or she may decline the "15" and instead demand trial by court-martial because of its wider legal protections although the maximum penalties are greater there. Punishments are limited to such things as reduction one rank, a fine of 2/3 one month's basic pay and confinement for up to eight days.

The Stockade

Known later as the Army Regional Confinement Facility at Fort Knox, the stockade opened in 1952. It was just off Gold Vault Road, about a mile and a half from where the gold is kept and within walking distance of the post commissary. The main building was a T-shaped, one-story concrete structure painted pale tan-yellow, its roof strewn with concertina wire. It was surrounded by a cyclone fence topped with barbed wire. There were guard towers at each corner.

The east and west wings, identical in layout, held prisoners. Each contained six one-man cells, five 24-man cells, and one 12-man cell. One single cell in each wing was used as a barber shop. Prisoners were marched there once a week and shorn with electric clippers by whichever minimum security prisoner was assigned to the task for that day. Facial hair was not allowed. Prisoners shaved with injectable-blade razors in front of the stainless steel mirrors over the sinks in their group cells. Sometimes the blades were used for suicide attempts.

In each prisoner wing, there was also a separated row of three much larger cells intended for officers. At the end of this row was a small dispensary for OTC medicines and bandages, supplied to inmates at the guards' discretion, though a medic may have been there from time to time.

Other wings provided space for administration and services, such as a mess hall that held about 100 men at a time; a chapel that held about 100 if some were standing; a chaplain's office adjoining the chapel; a large, rarely used auditorium; a shop for maintenance work; an administration office with several desks; an intake room; and offices for the confinement officer, the executive officer and other officers. In addition, there was a visitors' room, which contained space for a library, and which sometimes was used for band practice. Some of the band members were cadre but most were prisoners. There was of course a great deal of turnover in the band.

Outside the main building but still within the cyclone fence was a yard where prisoners were assembled in the morning prior to being marched out in five-man work crews. It was also used for supervised exercise and to assemble the entire population when the evening head count indicated, often mistakenly, there had been an escape.

A parking lot out front served visitors, senior NCOs, and officers. The lower-ranking cadre lived in barracks nearby.

The American ground soldier

. . .is what his home, his religion, his schooling, and the moral code and ideals of his society have made him. The Army cannot unmake him. It must reckon with the fact that he comes from a civilization in which aggression connected with the taking of life is prohibited and unacceptable."Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall, Men Against Fire

Ft. Knox and POWs

Fort Knox is in Kentucky, about 40 miles SSW of Louisville. The 109,000 acre (170 sq mi, 441 sq km base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. Until June 2011, it was the home of the U.S. Army Armor Center and the U.S. Army Armor School and was used by both the Army and the Marine Corps to train crews on the M1 Abrams main battle tank. It's known best as the site of the United States Bullion Depository, which houses a significant portion of the United States' official gold reserves.

Between February 1944 and June 1946, the base was the site of a major camp for Italian and German POWs. The Italians arrived first. In May 1944, six months after Italy had surrendered, they were allowed to volunteer for special service units to aid the American Army. German POWs began to arrive in June 1944 and had a routine camp life with work, rules, and recreation. Outdoor and indoor work details were assigned, often alongside civilian employees. Many civilians and prisoners got along well with one another; some became friends. At least eighteen Axis prisoners died at Fort Knox, two of them from an accidental shooting that injured several others. ⁱ

Jehovah's Witnesses

Through an agreement with the Justice Department after WWII, JWs were routinely classified as COs (even though they might be willing to fight for "God's Army"). As such, they would be drafted into alternative civilian service rather than the military if they met the usual physical and mental standards for induction. Many of them instead sought and were granted complete exemption as ministers (4D) by proving they were spending the equivalent of full time "teaching and preaching" the tenets of their religion. ⁱ Not all draft boards knew about these rulings, and some were hostile to JWs so drafted them anyway. Also, not all members of the religion knew or understood the Selective Service laws or regulations, and in some cases their eligibility was unclear.

i https://www.a2z.org/wtarchive/docs/1953_Procedure_Of_JWs_Under_Selective_Service.pdf and https://watchtowerdocuments.org/documents/Memorandum%20To%20JW%20Concerned%20With%20The%20Draft.pdf

Chaplains

are in the military to further the military mission, as is every member. Most understood that when they entered. While they have the insignia of their particular affiliation (Christian, Jewish, etc.) on their uniform lapels, it is below the " US" insignia.

In the Vietnam era US, military chaplains represented more than 200 different denominations. As of 2011, the denominations with the largest representation, both active and reserve, were: Southern Baptist Convention (787), Roman Catholic Church (350), United Methodist Church (274), Evangelical Church Alliance (174), General Council of Assemblies of God (153), Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (149), and Evangelical Lutheran Church In America (128).ⁱ

The Army's stated goal is to have each faith be proportionately represented. Some religions assign clergy, others allow theirs to volunteer. If one doesn't meet its quota, the Army permits another to substitute. Because the Southern Baptists did not require college degrees or seminary graduation for their ministers, there were more available; thus, vacancies left by other churches were filled by them. They received much better pay and benefits than their civilian jobs in most cases and instant respect.

A 1945 proposal for universal military training by the War and Navy Departments explained in its call for new chaplains: "Religion strengthens and steadies the serviceman in the presence of danger and sustains him in hardship and adversity.'ⁱⁱ

Project 100,000 and the African-American Soldier

Once the Vietnam War heated up, the Army was no longer a better deal than civilian life for African-Americans in general. To meet the escalating hunger for bodies, Defense Secretary McNamara initiated Project 100,000 in October 1966. It significantly lowered the enlistment standards so that men who had scored in Category IV of the Armed Forces Qualification Test, which had placed them in the 10^th to 30^th percentile, were now qualified.

Thus Black men previously disqualified by inferior educations were now being drafted in much higher numbers. At the beginning of 1965, there were about 23,300 US troops in Vietnam. By the end of 1967, there were 465,600. Of the 320,000 to 354,000 who entered the military under Project 100,000 between October 1966 and June 1969, 41% were black, although black Americans comprised only 11% of the US population. As GIs, they were assigned to the worst jobs and were 23% of all combat troops in Vietnam. They were also punished more frequently and more severely there, receiving 25.5% of nonjudicial punishments and 34.3 percent of courts-martial. ⁱ i https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/opinion/racism-vietnam-war.html

Body Count

A few years into the American adventure in Vietnam, it was discovered that the number of enemy dead reported was greatly exaggerated. Body count was the way US success was being scored. The president wanted to be winning; the higher the score, the greater the success. So a soldier in the field who thought he might have hit someone would call it a kill. The outright liar who had missed or who hadn't even fired might report a kill. The squad leader would add up the reports and increase the total by one or two. What the hell, he wanted to look good. The platoon leader might add in a few more. This is the way we were trained. It was tacit but clear. And the company commander tweaked his score up a little. And the brigade commander. And onward and upward.

The top command knew this was going on but looked the other way for a while, because it made them look good. The LA Times reported on February 9, 1991, that a few years after the war, General Norman Schwarzkopf admitted body counts pushed junior commanders into a numbers game that compromised their integrity, and so on up the chain of command until the numbers reported to the commander-in-chief had little relation to reality. ⁱ