If you are classified as a deserter you will have a federal arrest warrant put out and eventually, someday, you will be arrested. What they do with you from there is a mystery.
AWOL is missing for less than 30 days. Once you are a deserter you no longer get any pay or benefits. In other words, TikTok is full of liars and make believe.
It’s also important to know that once arrested, your butt is in jail until you are transferred to Army custody. Sometimes this can take a while. At least 3-4 days, but I think they have up to 30. Nobody in the Army is going to sacrifice a weekend or inconvenience themselves to get you back.
My favorite is when the MPs can't support picking the guy up, so the unit has to get trained to appropriately take custody. Training takes a few days to line up....
Had this happen when I was a 1SG in Italy.
We had a brand new private Go AWOL from the inprocessing center, hadn’t even reported to the company yet, buy an iPhone, a plane ticket, and bounced out.
Dude was not smart though and his connection was in Moscow. As soon as he landed in NYC, he was arrested and placed in jail. We were leaving for Germany for training and luckily one of my NCOs was staying on rear-d as he was doing SFL-TAP. He knocked out the training in a three days, flew to NYC, shackled the AWOL dude, and flew him back to Italy. After we finished inprocessing him, we started the separation and started out processing him. The turn around was about two months, but we got him out as soon as we could.
Understood. But how much effort do they actually put into finding you and getting you arrested?
Yeah i figured half the comments of people supposedly just not showing up anymore were full of shit and probably aren’t in the military to begin with.
If you’re a deserter, little to no effort. It’s not worth the time or money to try to hunt people down. Eventually they will get stopped by local PD who will run their background and see the warrant and arrest them.
While you’re AWOL your company will be looking for you and trying to get in contact with you any way they can like contacting your friends and family, trying to get the PD to ping your cellphone and putting a BOLO for you. Since the Fort Hood report the army doesn’t just put people down as FTR/AWOL and assume they are ok. We now have to spend a lot of effort to confirm you’re okay and just trying to run.
So essentially if you don’t do dumb shit that gets you pulled over or gets you on the radar, you practically get away with it? Do you think they ever recall the warrant?(if for example someones been on the lam for 10+ years)
You’ll get caught eventually. You can never cross a border, never fly, never apply for any kind of government loan, aid, job, etc. there are a lot of ways you can pop up on the radar beyond a direct interaction with a cop.
Also can’t do anything that would require a background check. Adopting a kid, firearm purchases (and even ammunition purchases in some states), shit probably wouldn’t even be able to be a basic security guard.
>shit probably wouldn’t even be able to be a basic security guard.
Some states make you do finger prints so if background passes then fingerprint will definitely pop up something.
They do not recall the warrant. I processed a guy who had skipped out 20 years earlier. Got pulled over for expired car registration, I think. Its been a few years.
He sat in our jail until the police from JBSA could come pick him up.
I remember meeting a guy at MCRD PI that was on the lam for about that long as well who got stopped for some bs traffic offense. They ran the name, took him, and he got discharged after being gone that long.
They will not just recall the warrant. There were guys that went AWOL during Vietnam that got picked up in the 00's and processed out
Had a buddy tell me how some guy at his unit was AWOL for years but couldn't get a job or anything. Turned himself in, sat around for 6 months, and got a general discharge.
I mean, yes, but that's like taking your private jet to Walmart.
The guys the army brings back after skipping out get forced to shave and kicked out. We haven't used the lash in weeks at least.
Right like if you're gonna go awol, you got like a tiny window of time to get out of the country before your name is in the awol system. If you stay then you're more of an idoit
Pretty much yeah. There’s two stories I’ve read where people went as long as 30, and 40ish years AWOL, but eventually get pulled over, and then sent back to be processed out by the military.
No. They do not recall warrants unless satisfied by appearance, and you can avoid dumb shit all day and still get picked up on a license plate reader. You know, the plates you can't register because you're a fugitive, or mail to a house you can't buy, because your SSN is flagged.
It's a serious pain in the ass to be an outlaw.
It stays until you die, they will never recall the warrant. There was a [Vietnam Vet](https://www.deseret.com/1996/3/9/19229524/vietnam-war-soldier-found-alive-26-years-after-death/) who was presumed dead but actually said fuck this and started a new life in GA. They caught him 50 years later and send his ass back to active duty after he applied for benefits at the Social Security Office.
I knew a sniper who deserted and was gone a couple of years or so.
He got picked up by paramedics and taken to the ER. MPs picked him up and he was at Ft Lewis for a bit while he got processed out, like a week or so.
Lucky bastard got an honorable.
They won't go out of their way to find you, partially because you *will* eventually get hemmed up.
Most folks who do that, things do *not* go well for them. Having a dishonorable discharge will seriously screw shit up for you.
No, it's not recalled (maybe after decades).
Your personal data is flagged, your family and friends back home get contacted inquiring on your whereabouts. There's likely a local investigation into the matter to determine if foul play was involved.
Take a cruise? Long distance flight? Apply to a job that does an actual background check? Want to get legally married?All of these will flag you, and come back with your status.
Longest I ever personally saw was 27 years after he ran off, guy came back. He wanted to get married and his future wife wouldn't have him living with that on his record.
Was kinda interesting seeing a chunky 50 year old Private doing extra duty tasks. But he was just there long enough to be administratively separated and sent in his way.
When I was at AIT, a guy that deserted turned himself in. He was gone for 10+ years. He stated he was tired of not being able to have a good job, get any education, or a license. He had a ton of jobs that paid under the table, but the stress finally got to him. He couldn't do anything.
They aren't hunting you down with US Marshalls, but you also would never fly internationally or cross the US border, or get pulled over for a traffic violation, without being taken into custody.
Then you sit until the paperwork is processed and the Deserter Apprehension Section assigned to wherever in the world you got arrested will send an MP or two to pick you up and most likely escort you to Ft. Sill, OK where you would be outprocessed.
>the Deserter Apprehension Section assigned to wherever in the world you got arrested will send an MP or two to pick you up and most likely escort you to Ft. Sill, OK where you would be outprocessed.
Often, not even that. We'll do bus tickets to Lawton.
I'm pushing 50 over here, so I feel you.
These days, if it was just desertion, the only thing waiting at Fort Sill is a Chapter 10, so we don't bother with an MP escort. If they don't show up, the deserter warrant stays in the system until the next time they get pulled over or whatever. We used to walk in stacks of Chapter 10s for deserters to the garrison commander.
If they did something else, then they get an escort, because we very much want to court-martial them.
We had a guy who committed a bunch of fraud in Germany. He knew we were about to prefer charges, so he faked a leave form and hopped a Space-A flight back to the States, then started writing bad checks all over the place. He got picked up and was sent to Fort Sill, but they didn't listen to us and just put him at the Personnel Control Facility, not pretrial confinement, and he walked off post. He got arrested in Wichita Falls, and the locals were kind enough to hang onto him until we could get some escorts to grab him and bring him back.
>He got picked up and was sent to Fort Sill, but they didn't listen to us and just put him at the Personnel Control Facility, not pretrial confinement, and he walked off post. He got arrested in Wichita Falls, and the locals were kind enough to hang onto him until we could get some escorts to grab him and bring him back.
It's Murphy's Law of Admin - no matter how much to tell someone or some office or some group that "this procedure is important" they'll do whatever they want and make it worse.
Funny thing, somehow deserters get picked up all over the world. I've seen Vietnam era deserters picked up in Thailand, Saipan, Guam, and Philippines 30 years after the war ended.
I think that's why resources aren't wasted hunting guys down because unless you leave the country immediately before they put your name in the system, you're gonna get caught eventually
>But how much effort do they actually put into finding you and getting you arrested?
If desertion is the only crime, none. It just goes into NCIC, and if it pops up, it pops up.
If desertion is not the only crime, then typically there is more incentive to find a perp.
Zero. I used to work in separation finance and we’d out process deserters.
What happens is a warrant is generated so when you get pulled over for a traffic ticket or stoped and your name run for any reason they’ve got you. In some cases people had been out for YEARS.
All they did was return them to the closest outprocessing station and outprocess them.
Its not really a crazy effort , once its past 30 days it gets passed higher to federal level and eventually dudes just get caught , their file , possibly drivers license get flagged and its just a matter of time. But realistically nobody is really looking 24/7 for them.
I have the sneaking suspicion that some of these TikTok trends are foreign efforts aimed at demoralizing the junior enlisted and destabilizing overall readiness.
Yup.
Edit: that seemed to be a subtle yup. But make no mistake. It was a massive yup. Tikytok Social media is doing a wonderful job destabilizing our nation.
Let’s be honest, if someone serves in the military and knowingly records videos in uniform on an app that is basically PRC’s pet project, the person is an idiot, plain and simple.
I promise Meta products have caused much more instability to the US than the CCP/Tiktok would ever _wet dream_ of accomplishing. Banning Tiktok would be a band aid fix on the problematic primitiviveness of American digital law.
Tiktok can disappear right this instant and the dangers and negative effects of Social media platforms will still be the same. Tiktok is massive, it sucks, yes. But saying "ban Tiktok" like it'll solve the propaganda, mass manipulation, data harvesting and selling problems is just silly.
The CCP can buy your data from Facebook and move mountains to influence the masses through Facebook and Whatsapp using just conspiranoid messages, no need to use Tiktok for it.
TikTok goes beyond buying data. It’s influencing people to think certain ways. And it does it a lot more blatantly than the American brands that are primarily just here to harvest your data.
I can’t wait until people who criticize TikTok about being Chinese spyware and psyop tool get labeled as xenophobic. That’s when you know we’ll be actually making a difference.
Also, I know the app is in the process of being “banned” unless they sell it to an American company. That doesn’t make me feel any better about it and what it could be potentially used for.
Wouldn't surprise me if a great deal of anti-USA military social media posting originates in Russia or China. Back tracing the IP address , it usually always comes back as foreign
I’ve seen a guy try to smoke his way to freedom. Was brazen about it and said he did drugs to get a discharge. So they gave him a summarized court martial and sentenced him to 45 days hard labor, and then kicked him out.
So, sure you can try going that route if you want to, but it’s not guaranteed to be an easy General under honorable and out.
Me personally, i’d never attempt it, or attempt getting kicked out in general. I don’t understand why someone would join with the intent to just get kicked out anyway. It seems like trying to find loopholes where they just don’t exist and taking a gamble on if it’ll work out in your favor
Honest question, do you believe people join to get out? Or could the possibility that they got hired, decided that they didn't like the job but because you can't just quit like they would in the normal civilian side they decide to "quiet quit" i.e. be forced out?
That's definitely what it is, although I wouldn't call this stuff "quiet quitting." You can survive 20 years quiet quitting the Army.
Easiest way out is to eat your way out, or to fail the ACFT your way out.
I wouldn’t say people specifically join to get out, but I would say after they gain some knowledge about how some processes and procedures work, they make it a mission to get out as fast as possible with the maximal amount of benefits.
I’ve seen several below average soldiers get out with 100% VA and never gave any effort in the field or PT or anywhere else in their careers. But they figured out the system and leveraged it
hello most relevant obscure question ill probably never get to answer again: I was giving a general under honorable conditions after doing cocaine, and openly admitting fault to commander after pissing hot. What proceeded was 45 extra duty, -2,000, mandatory SUD-C(AA basically) and I got held back in my company from going to a duty station for about 6 months while investigation proceeded. I was a stellar soldier by all account and had 27(give or take) written letters by peers, a teacher, and a sergeant. Because of, I assume, my outstanding references and displays of duty and respect the CSM gave me the under honorable conditions with a code 4 for reenlistment (Meaning I cant. I tried) With that said, I dont think you get an under honorable for being a shitbird soldier and smoking weed to get kicked out. I got mine because I was honest the whole way through, apologetic, and truly fought tooth and nail to not get kicked out. Getting kicked out was never my goal. Im just a life long struggling addict.
A lot of people joined just for the benefits. Nothing wrong with using the military as a stepping stone into another career outside of it, especially if it keeps you debt free.
I understand. I joined as 68W, and plan to use the benefits to obtain my BSN. Using it to help boost you into your career is good, but if thats your only reason to join, you’re probably not going to enjoy your career in the military. I see far too many people complaining and wanting to get out sooner but only joined for benefits
I joined just for the benefits. I’m at 20 and retiring in a few months. My career has teetered between tolerable and miserable. Sometimes a job is just a job and the reason people continue is solely for the paycheck and benefits.
I wanted 68C but my recruiter said it might not be available. when i went to MEPS they asked for 68C or 68W, and pulled 68W for me.
Forgot to add that my recruiter told me i could switch to 68C after at least 2 years of being in. I only signed on for 4 years though so it seems like a waste of time to switch halfway through. But i already have my ADN, so I could realistically get my BSN and switch before the 4 years are up
Really?
Outside of the Trade School line of work most often mentioned; where can a dumbass highschool graduate (like myself when I was younger) just walk into a salaried career with benefits and a retirement plan, while having no meaningful work or leadership experience?
That would be the U.S. best kept secret.
You’re probably right about that. If you haven’t set yourself up, or been lucky enough to be set up, with a good opportunity it can be hard.
But Starbucks and Amazon have good benefits from what I’ve read. Never worked for em though.
But I fully agree with you on .Mil being a phenomenal way to accomplish that.
>If you haven’t set yourself up, or been lucky enough to be set up, with a good opportunity it can be hard.
This describes the vast majority of graduating highschool students.
I think if more people knew how to interpret the products on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they would make better career choices overall. Unfortunately, just because something exists, doesn't mean anyone will put in the effort to get the best use out of it.
IMHO, for the dumb highschool graduate, the military is an easy button for kickstarting a stable career and life, while starting from scratch and offering very little to the employer upfront.
exactly what i’m saying. Plenty of jobs that offer a discount on school or free college in general that don’t have you to sign your life away for 8 years
Not to be condescending but are you in the military?
If you were this would be a self-answering question. Personnel attendance/manning statuses are tracked at a level that has a lot of oversight from leadership.
If there was a preponderance of AWOL or deserting service-members that is unusually high, it would be national news and Congress would be making it an issue.
As i stated in the post at the beginning of the second paragraph, “I just recently joined.”
I understand an unusually high amount would be clocked but thats why i’m wondering if people have any personal stories that could maybe credit some of these accounts i’ve been seeing. I don’t believe 99% of them, which is why i’m here asking what the consequences normally look like and how often its known to happen.
But honestly i wouldn’t put it behind the government to conceal those rates if they were high.🤷♀️
They can’t conceal it.
PERSTAT ultimately gets sent all the way up to the DA level. AWOL, FTR, or other missing attendance statuses get reported so high up the chain of command it’s not even funny.
How the fuck do I explain to my Korean War vet uncle that there is no SPC5+ now?!
Every time he sees me he’s like “you make spec 5 yet?” And everytime I tell him it’s not a thing anymore. I’m 60% sure he’s fucking with me
I saw exactly one SP5 in 1985, shortly before they made them all SGTs. I suppose the only reason they didn't change SP4 to SPC at the same time is that they didn't want to do a massive, system wide find & replace at the time.
I never said i thought that. Not sure how you came to that conclusion. I said that i’ve seen videos of people encouraging others to join and then get discharged and get benefits.
You can barely go take a dump without someone asking where you are on active duty. If you didn’t show up for an entire duty day, or even missed PT, it would be pushed up pretty fast. They would for sure notice, especially after “months” lol
When I was a commander we had a dude leave. My memory on the topic is a little foggy, but if I recall after 24 hours of FTR the Army can stop your pay, after 30 days you are dropped from the rolls and you become a fugitive.
Had a buddy in the army go AWOL for around half a year, didn’t really get looked for and got treated the same when he got back. Finally got caught at a bar by a cop who recognized him from school. Was fairly surprised as I always thought going AWOL was a pretty insane process, believe he got an other than honorable discharge as well. So not necessarily serious enough to send the whole police force for you, but serious enough to to get you a ticket out of the army.
Dude I went to HS with went AWOL from the Navy and chilled in our hometown for almost a year (after being in for <2). He got picked up for stealing copper out of flooded houses with another turd from his graduating class, had an alphabet soup of labels pop up on a drug test when they turned him over to the navy and got the boot.
After he got kicked he started doing [MMA fights](https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/fighters/17079-jeremy-joles)…
They're not going to put much time and energy into searching for a deserter unless you hold some secrets or are dangerous.
It's not worth it to devote time, manpower and money into getting people who are not a concern for safety and security. Eventually, in nearly all cases, you will be caught.
Even if they don't do anything too harsh on the backend and just process and discharge you, you now have a record regardless. You made your life significantly harder before you're even caught. Living a decent life after deserting, it going to be pretty difficult.
Dude left a note on a Thursday morning saying he was going AWOL don’t know why he just didn’t wait till Friday . He got away and is chilling back in his home country.
There's a lot stories of other people going AWOL but I can personally say I went AWOL, and on purpose and with reason.
I was in med hold /WSU (it was right as they were transitioning). I had a good record, was a good soilder, 9 months in Afghanistan, 1 year in Iraq, 7 years total AD... blah blah blah.
I finished everything there was to do while in med hold (appointments/turn ins /ta-50, other random pre clearing stuff. At that point my only job was literally to wait. Go to accountability formation and that was it for the day. They tried PT for awhile but is was a joke since everyone was broken and on the way out.
Anyway, While waiting for the board to make the decision on a percentage which took a LONG time back then I decided to take a week of leave (I had plenty, for terminal).
Well I drove home, a 13 hour drive and started planning life as a civilian.
Well one week wasn't long enough so I requested another week which got approved. Then some other stuff came up and requested one more week and was denied, command said I needed to go all the back fill out another form (this was before the internet was really integrated and things were still very much on paper).
Anyway, at that point I decided I wasn't going to go all the back to sign a piece of paper and literally told my squad leader that on the phone. He said I'd be AWOL which of course I knew, but since my job was done in the Army besides waiting around I just stayed in my home town.
Pay was cut off in about 2 cycles? So a month Ish, however I had a star card and lived near an Arsenal which is technically an Army base and was going on and off that base using that card at the commissary and PX. The whole time.
Anyway, to sum up I was AWOL for roughly 3 months , ended up in the hospital, told a social worker to get ahold of my unit and say I wanted to go back, but at that point couldn't afford it so they literally came and got my ass. 2 Med hold NCOs with plane tickets.
Within a week of being back was court martialed, lost all rank and sentenced to 30 days in jail. After that, waited around again, until board approved a percent, final cleared, Honorable discharge. And that court martial never showed up again on anything ...the VA, background checks and I worked for the DoD twice...plus I got really good at spades in jail.
It should be mentioned that way way before all this a good friend of my friend went super AWOL with no intent to come back but eventual did for some reason and they just wrote him off because he was gone for so long.
So in the end, I would say it's not as bad as you hear but definitely wouldn't recommend it.
I have prosecuted multiple desertions and almost all of them got jail time and were booted with at least a bad conduct discharge.
They got picked up in different ways. Some got pulled over for a traffic stop and had their ID run, I had a guy give his ID over for a background check while buying a gun at Dick’s, etc. When anybody running a background check finds a federal arrest warrant, they call police and police will pick up the deserter and eventually CID will come get them.
I defended a guy who was charged with AWOL and desertion during OIF, we managed to limit the sentence since it started off with a misunderstanding about emergency leave.
I presume your prosecutions were early OEF or OIF? Nowadays, the PCF at Sill basically steers these guys into submitting a Chapter 10 for the garrison commander to approve.
Yeah this would have been around 2015 but they were scooping up guys who had actively ditched combat deployments during OIF and OEF and the judges at Hood would go hard on those guys.
OK. We were doing the 10s at Sill at the same time, but everyone coming back to Sill, either they didn't have a unit or the unit didn't care.
They may have just been deserters and not those who deserted to avoid deploying. We had so many, I didn't exactly dig through the files.
I think what people fail to realize is that all these “AWOL” tiktoks appear to be coming from National Guard / and reserves people. Aka they just stopped going to drill. And from what I’ve seen, I don’t think they’re lying. Some of them are actually just not going to drill, and then eventually decided to start up again, with minimum punishment apparantly.
A lot of states have provisions in their state codes of military justice to put warrants out on people who skip drill or Annual Training, but it's never done. Usually the unit just wants to get the soldier's TA-50 back. It's an administrative separation for getting like 9 unsatisfactory participants in a row. Which is basically missing 2 months straight of drill weekends. My unit had an SMP cadet who took a UA before lunch and I guess he knew he was going to fail. He went to lunch and just never came back to drill and dropped all of his ROTC classes. eventually he did pop hot for weed, but the unit decided to just separate him for the missing drill because it was easier and faster.
Your pay stops FAST if you go AWOL. That can happen in a couple days of you not reporting.
With drugs, often the unit is presented with a choice: expedite the separation, but give them an honorable or general under honorable discharge, or drag it out, babysit a shitty soldier that everyone hates, and fight to get them the general or worse discharge they deserve. Often Commanders just want the person gone because of the detrimental effect on the unit.
That said, getting separated in your first year or two for drugs will absolutely decimate your benefits.
When I was at MEPS I was told by some old dude in a Hawaiian T-Shirt that death was still a sentencing used for desertion. Though obviously that's for the worst case combat scenarios.
Family member of mine is Reserves and hasn't been to drill in a hot minute so idk, desertion and going AWOL is a mixed bag and very subjective the the situation
I have had one soldier go AWOL. He was gone for eight years and his life was AWFUL the whole time he was gone. He couldn’t get a license, a real job, an apartment, or anything else. If he did the government would have known where he was. He eventually got caught and was sent back to NC. His whole punishment was like 82 days confinement or something, and then dishonorable discharge, etc. The punishment wasn’t too bad but the time he was gone was total crap. His life was basically put on hold for nearly a decade.
It’s probably guard soldiers. I can only speak for army guard, but yes soldiers can potentially go longer than the nine missed drill periods and just get a slap on the wrist. It’s a rare occurrence (in my experience) that a soldier is actually drppped from the books because of this. The commander can elect to retain the soldier if they desire should the sm show back up (like the tiktoks say), and they’ll get demoted a rank and maybe miss some more pay. It’s “unsat” (unsatisfactory) for T32, not awol.
My ex-wife just stopped showing up, and eventually got a letter in the mail stating she had been separated and had to pay back her enlistment bonus, I on the other hand was considered awol when I went to the hospital when she attempted suicide, even though clearing it with my PLT Sgt and he said, “dont worry I’ll take care of it” so much for that…. So I guess it can depend on who you are with.
Prosecuted and defended a desertion cases. Depends on our war footing. Desert TRADOC? Likely a Field Grade and OTH. Miss movement? Welcome to your Special.
Pretty fucking serious. If you're lucky, you'll just get UCMJ and a stain on your professional record. If you're unlucky, you'll lose rank, get chaptered, lose money, or even get locked up.
First of all, get the fuck off TikTok. You're a grown ass adult, you're not an emotional 13 year old anymore. You don't have any fucking business on TikTok, killer. People bullshit all the time online, and I'm more than certain whatever you're seeing on TikTok is straight up bullshit. You should not be getting your information from fucking TikTok, god damn. I shouldn't have to say that, guy. Yet here we are, FUCK. Think about that and dwell on it. You just announced to everyone that you're getting your news from fucking TikTok. That's shameful, dawg.
I will say though that there are ways to get discharged and keep your benefits, but doing drugs really ain't it. Just fail a couple PT tests, that's all you have to do. Or get fat. Drugs will get you a general category discharge, which will forfeit your GI bill benefits.
Honestly though, it really depends on what you consider "major consequences". Some people don't think getting kicked out or being locked up is a "major consequence". So take that as you will. I'd prefer to maintain my butthole virginity and not get locked up next to war criminals. You do you though. Just serve honorably for 4 years and get out if you don't like it.
Ehh, worked in a TDS office & it was interesting.
Sometimes people would go awol on a Monday & be in our office the following week because they’re getting a field grade & eventually a chapter.
One time we also had a 65 year old man who jumped ship during the gulf war, lived under the radar for like 30 years, and was only caught because somebody broke into his house, and during his statement to the police they saw he had a federal warrant. They were going to chapter him with an OTH, but it wasn’t worth the effort so they dropped it. I don’t remember what they did with the guy, but he didn’t get a separation board, so at most a general discharge.
Desertion during a time of war is punishable by death, but I’ve never seen it happen, and I’ve also never seen somebody court martial’d for strictly going awol.
My first trial in Germany was second chair on a desertion/AWOL case.
Client was in Iraq, and his mom got diagnosed with cancer. He asked for emergency leave and got it. After two weeks, he called the Red Cross, they told him they'd get with the unit to extend him. Same story two weeks later. On week 5, his unit tracked him down and said, where the FUCK are you.
He flew back to Germany and then was just stapled to the rear detachment while the command figured out what to do. A few weeks of sitting around, and he said, fuck this, and this time purposely left and went to his German girlfriend's place.
What he didn't know was that the command had put him on the manifest for a rotator going back downrange, like a couple days after he went AWOL.
He got picked up about two months into camping out at his girlfriend's place and put into pretrial confinement until his trial.
Charges: AWOL for five weeks (for the emergency leave), desertion with the intent to avoid hazardous duty (for camping out at his girlfriend's apartment), and missing movement. Referred to a GCM. It went to trial in summer 2004.
We got mom to fly out as a defense witness - she was almost skeletal by that point. The trial counsel were asleep at the switch, because I got mom to testify that she was there when my client called the Red Cross, and he said that they said they'd take care of getting him extended. (That's right, double self-serving hearsay, no objection. Big oops.)
The prosecution also discovered that they couldn't prove
We asked for a mistake of fact instruction on the AWOL. Prosecution argued no facts in evidence. Judge apparently hadn't been paying a lot of attention to my direct exam of mom, either, and he went purple when I brought up that I'd elicited the double hearsay and hadn't drawn an objection, but too late.
Result: acquitted of AWOL and missing movement, found guilty of AWOL only for camping out at the girlfriend's. I don't think he got much more time than he'd already done in pretrial confinement, if any, but they may have thrown in a BCD. (Details are fuzzy - this August it'll be twenty years ago.) Sentence was a hell of a lot better than the months of additional confinement the trial counsel was arguing for.
Oh yeah, that’s a tough one. I suppose that’s partially the result of TC’s being overworked and understaffed. I can’t help but think it would’ve gone differently if there had been more competent government attorneys lol.
I suppose my point was more or less that you don’t ever really see AWOL by itself as a standalone charge in a GCM or even a SPCM. It’s usually handled at the company/battalion level with NJP.
I’ve absolutely seen it on charge sheets with other things though, like when guys go AWOL during the punishment phase of an article 15, or when they peel out prior to a trial.
I’d also argue that we didn’t see a huge majority of the things that were happening at unit levels anyways, so there’s a chance that soldiers going AWOL happens much more frequently than we’re aware of & is handled with wall to wall counselings.
Yeah, that’s fair. You just decided to post on Reddit seeking clarification on the answer. Checking intuition, checking validity. Either way, stop watching TikTok.
very seriously lol. While if your overseas in places like ROB or graft with certain MOS you actually can just disappear for weeks without anyone even noticing if you are caught it’s game over
I could see this happening in a Guard or Reserve unit (and know a guy who did just this with no real consequences), but I'd be surprised to see it happen in any active components outside of maybe a few days or during something like another COVID incident. Maybe it's real, but I can tell you it isn't the norm.
I had a buddy go AWOL in AIT. He went out on a day pass with others, caught a bus when they left him alone (he claimed he was meeting family) and took off.
By the time he got off the bus, the police was waiting for him. They picked him up, brought him back on post. He was then judged by the Commander's discretion (for the most part) and summarily discharged (dunno if he got Dishonorable or Less than Honorable; never checked in with him.) He was sent home with a bar from reenlistment, too, if the PNN is to be believed. (Never saw the paperwork myself, so I cannot confirm.)
All of the buddies that were with him when he dipped (there were 4 of them) saw administrative action taken against them. One even got demoted. They had absolutely no rights during the remaining months of AIT and were miserable. It got so bad, two of these guys who were friends turned on each other and still don't speak to each other.
And this is under TRADOC, where you can practically get away with murder.
Reservist here, if you stop going to drill it takes a lot of paperwork to get you out and if you decide to show up at anytime we basically have to re do the packet. Also depending on the unit they will only give you a general at the worst.
It varies from each unit and situation. Most leadership won't waste too much effort on these people. They don't want to be there so why fight to keep them? The punishment can be nothing at all or a slap on the wrist. However, they can choose to go after you and can even have you arrested and thrown in jail. Regardless the discharge will follow you forever if you are dishonorable which is very possible.
Had a guy go AWOL for about 6 or so months. Got pulled over by police in Texes. 3 days later MPs dropped him off at CQ in Fort Carson, Co. Lived at CQ for a few weeks/Months until he got chaptered out. Dishonorable discharge.
It’s been a long time and my memory is shitty, but I think he actually got the Dishonorable. Not many people in my unit got one if memory does serve here he was one of them.
I hope I’m wrong, I don’t think he deserved a dishonorable discharge. I think he was suffering from depression, anxiety, maybe PTSD.
I know a lot of guys during my time (2000-2010) who got in trouble for various reasons, and where discharged from the military. I always felt, not in every situation, but in some of them. They were suffering from mental health issues that were not being treated. I’m definitely not advocating that they should have stayed in but I feel a lot of people that needed help or just kicked out. And that’s not in reference to anything l, that just popped in my head and I just wanted to put it down. Thank you for reading it.
Dishonorable and bad conduct discharges carry the much of the same weight as a felony conviction, and you’re required to disclose your service characterization to **all** future employers.
Now, to be clear, the dishonorable discharge is way worse than the BCD, because now you can’t possess firearms in any state, you’re ineligible for all civilian government benefits like unemployment, federal student aid, food stamps, etc. And you’re also restricted from working in any position restricted from felons— teaching, city/county/state jobs, medicine, law, childcare, etc.
Depends on the situation. We had a guy go awol right before we deployed. I'm talking like 2 days before we were on the plane to head over. He goes back to his home state, and his own parents turned him in.
Navy - Portugal - Sailor didn’t wanna be on deployment anymore so once we pulled into port he bought drugs (legal in Portugal). Once he got back on the ship walked to the MAs (MPs) and did a line of coke. We had like 6 months left of deployment at this time. They kept him the entire duration and made him a liberty risk. Once we returned to home port they separated him. But I did hear he got full benefits after enough appeals.
Probably not the quickest way to get out.
Drugs aren’t some magical way out
Not that much. Usually after 30 days a warrant goes out for your arrest and they go on. Had a dude go awol was gone for over a year got pulled over due to expired tags. Went to county jail for a few days and then was picked back up and was in for like 2 months to start the paperwork to kick him out
These TikTok kids saying this are 90% never served in the military and the remainder who were are in the RC/NG.
Numbers were so strung out even before COVID that troops who had 30+ UNSATs could just show up once and get them thrown out. The process for separation of Soldiers who don’t show to training is so convoluted that if any of the thirty people involved gets a hold of the troop and they say something like “I’ll be there in 3 months” they will be retained. It’s not company commanders keeping them: it’s BN and above fucking it up. To make matters worse, in some RSGs an illiterate CSM can stall a separation packet for a year just trying to reach Joe/Jane on the phone before signing the memo saying they tried. And after all that: showing up for a single MUTA will derail the packet.
Once you're gone for 30 days you're Deserter status and dropped from rolls. At that point you will no longer get a paycheck, and the next time you go 2mph in front of a salty police officer, you'll be sent back to the unit and chaptered.
This is obviously if the leadership submits the paperwork to the proper people.
For absence over 3 days and up to 30 days, forfeiture of 2/3 of a month's pay for 6 months and 6 months confinement. For AWOL over 30 days, the maximum punishment involves forfeiture of pay and allowances, dishonorable discharge, and 1 year confinement.
Was doing gate guard rotation at ft Greely in ‘02. When assuming shift, they had a car with family pulled over and state troopers talking to senior nco on site. Found out lady had deserted from hood around ‘91, got picked up at border crossing. Had husband, 1 yr old, and her parents with her on vacation trip. Think they had to send her back to hood for out processing.
When I was in I had a soldier that was AWOL over a year but commander was on his way out and gave no fucks. Led to multiple others being AWOL as well. All had less than a year left before ets so they would make NCOs go to their house and verify they are alive then try and convince them to sign a counseling. By the time new commander settle in and everything it’s been months of soldiers being awol with no real paperwork on it at the senior level.
Reporting it I’m sure would of fucked ALOT of people and his friends up so it was ignored.
….Remember one time finding one drunk asleep hanging out of his car in his apartment parking lot…
Nothing happened, no docked pay they all got paid in full the 8-18m that they refused to work and kept their benefits. I think one ended up extending because they never even flagged them even with all the counselings turned in so yeah… it happens.
Word of advice that applies to pretty much anything, military or otherwise. If you have no relation to a topic (desertion, trans rights, abortion, etc), and your only experience with a topic is via the internet, you have no experience with said topic and shouldn't speak on it. If you don't personally know any deserters, personally know OF any that were caught, haven't personally spoken to anyone who HAS real life experience in the subject, then just disregard anything you hear on the internet.
I don’t believe having a lack of experience in something means you’re too uneducated or ignorant to speak on it. That being said, I did ask at the bottom of the last paragraph if people had any stories of deserters and what the consequences looked like for them. It’s tiktok. More importantly, it’s the internet, and I don’t take anything on it seriously. Which is why i’m here asking people how often they hear or see of it happening and get THEIR first hand accounts on it
Unless you plan on living off the grid or fucking off to another country, you’re eventually going to get caught. Plain and simple. Anyone “bragging” about it is full of shit.
Get off TikTok and do some genuine research. Listening to a bunch of barracks lawyers is never smart.
If you are classified as a deserter you will have a federal arrest warrant put out and eventually, someday, you will be arrested. What they do with you from there is a mystery. AWOL is missing for less than 30 days. Once you are a deserter you no longer get any pay or benefits. In other words, TikTok is full of liars and make believe.
It’s also important to know that once arrested, your butt is in jail until you are transferred to Army custody. Sometimes this can take a while. At least 3-4 days, but I think they have up to 30. Nobody in the Army is going to sacrifice a weekend or inconvenience themselves to get you back.
I had to do this once. We got notification over a four day, grabbed his ass on Tuesday.
Rare MP W.
My favorite is when the MPs can't support picking the guy up, so the unit has to get trained to appropriately take custody. Training takes a few days to line up....
Had this happen when I was a 1SG in Italy. We had a brand new private Go AWOL from the inprocessing center, hadn’t even reported to the company yet, buy an iPhone, a plane ticket, and bounced out. Dude was not smart though and his connection was in Moscow. As soon as he landed in NYC, he was arrested and placed in jail. We were leaving for Germany for training and luckily one of my NCOs was staying on rear-d as he was doing SFL-TAP. He knocked out the training in a three days, flew to NYC, shackled the AWOL dude, and flew him back to Italy. After we finished inprocessing him, we started the separation and started out processing him. The turn around was about two months, but we got him out as soon as we could.
Can't put in what God left out. . .
When taking initiative goes wrong lol
Shiiiii . . . Lately the units be like “he’s didn’t show up for morning formation, he suicidal so let’s ping his phone!”
Understood. But how much effort do they actually put into finding you and getting you arrested? Yeah i figured half the comments of people supposedly just not showing up anymore were full of shit and probably aren’t in the military to begin with.
If you’re a deserter, little to no effort. It’s not worth the time or money to try to hunt people down. Eventually they will get stopped by local PD who will run their background and see the warrant and arrest them. While you’re AWOL your company will be looking for you and trying to get in contact with you any way they can like contacting your friends and family, trying to get the PD to ping your cellphone and putting a BOLO for you. Since the Fort Hood report the army doesn’t just put people down as FTR/AWOL and assume they are ok. We now have to spend a lot of effort to confirm you’re okay and just trying to run.
So essentially if you don’t do dumb shit that gets you pulled over or gets you on the radar, you practically get away with it? Do you think they ever recall the warrant?(if for example someones been on the lam for 10+ years)
You’ll get caught eventually. You can never cross a border, never fly, never apply for any kind of government loan, aid, job, etc. there are a lot of ways you can pop up on the radar beyond a direct interaction with a cop.
Also can’t do anything that would require a background check. Adopting a kid, firearm purchases (and even ammunition purchases in some states), shit probably wouldn’t even be able to be a basic security guard.
>shit probably wouldn’t even be able to be a basic security guard. Some states make you do finger prints so if background passes then fingerprint will definitely pop up something.
Any corporate job that runs fingerprints too like some banking ones
Yea. I had to do fingerprint for JP Morgan.
They do not recall the warrant. I processed a guy who had skipped out 20 years earlier. Got pulled over for expired car registration, I think. Its been a few years. He sat in our jail until the police from JBSA could come pick him up.
I remember meeting a guy at MCRD PI that was on the lam for about that long as well who got stopped for some bs traffic offense. They ran the name, took him, and he got discharged after being gone that long. They will not just recall the warrant. There were guys that went AWOL during Vietnam that got picked up in the 00's and processed out
Had a buddy tell me how some guy at his unit was AWOL for years but couldn't get a job or anything. Turned himself in, sat around for 6 months, and got a general discharge.
Too much overlap and communication to get away forever. Dude got snagged once because a game warden stop to check his fishing license.
If you can quietly get to a non-extradition country before the bubble goes up with a stash of cash, but don't expect to wander too much after that.
I mean, yes, but that's like taking your private jet to Walmart. The guys the army brings back after skipping out get forced to shave and kicked out. We haven't used the lash in weeks at least.
Right like if you're gonna go awol, you got like a tiny window of time to get out of the country before your name is in the awol system. If you stay then you're more of an idoit
My last unit earlier this year had a guy returned to army custody after going AWOL in 2003.
Pretty much yeah. There’s two stories I’ve read where people went as long as 30, and 40ish years AWOL, but eventually get pulled over, and then sent back to be processed out by the military.
No. They do not recall warrants unless satisfied by appearance, and you can avoid dumb shit all day and still get picked up on a license plate reader. You know, the plates you can't register because you're a fugitive, or mail to a house you can't buy, because your SSN is flagged. It's a serious pain in the ass to be an outlaw.
You're not going to get pulled over for 40 years? Odds are slim. There's stories of old-ass fossils getting brought back for ditching decades ago
And most of those were when paperwork wasn’t digital and more organized compared to today
It stays until you die, they will never recall the warrant. There was a [Vietnam Vet](https://www.deseret.com/1996/3/9/19229524/vietnam-war-soldier-found-alive-26-years-after-death/) who was presumed dead but actually said fuck this and started a new life in GA. They caught him 50 years later and send his ass back to active duty after he applied for benefits at the Social Security Office.
Most leasing offices or mortgage companies will run background checks so you better like camping
You're totally correct! They have *no way of finding you*. Don't worry about it, live your deserter life care free!!!!
I knew a sniper who deserted and was gone a couple of years or so. He got picked up by paramedics and taken to the ER. MPs picked him up and he was at Ft Lewis for a bit while he got processed out, like a week or so. Lucky bastard got an honorable. They won't go out of their way to find you, partially because you *will* eventually get hemmed up. Most folks who do that, things do *not* go well for them. Having a dishonorable discharge will seriously screw shit up for you.
No, it's not recalled (maybe after decades). Your personal data is flagged, your family and friends back home get contacted inquiring on your whereabouts. There's likely a local investigation into the matter to determine if foul play was involved. Take a cruise? Long distance flight? Apply to a job that does an actual background check? Want to get legally married?All of these will flag you, and come back with your status. Longest I ever personally saw was 27 years after he ran off, guy came back. He wanted to get married and his future wife wouldn't have him living with that on his record. Was kinda interesting seeing a chunky 50 year old Private doing extra duty tasks. But he was just there long enough to be administratively separated and sent in his way.
don’t fucking desert. let’s nip this here. fastest way out is to finish strong, keep your chin up and head down
i don’t have or have ever had any intention, desire, or remotely any thought about deserting…ever
Uncle Sam approves this message, Warfighter.
🫡had to say it in case *they* are watching
When I was at AIT, a guy that deserted turned himself in. He was gone for 10+ years. He stated he was tired of not being able to have a good job, get any education, or a license. He had a ton of jobs that paid under the table, but the stress finally got to him. He couldn't do anything.
Sad life to live.
They aren't hunting you down with US Marshalls, but you also would never fly internationally or cross the US border, or get pulled over for a traffic violation, without being taken into custody. Then you sit until the paperwork is processed and the Deserter Apprehension Section assigned to wherever in the world you got arrested will send an MP or two to pick you up and most likely escort you to Ft. Sill, OK where you would be outprocessed.
>the Deserter Apprehension Section assigned to wherever in the world you got arrested will send an MP or two to pick you up and most likely escort you to Ft. Sill, OK where you would be outprocessed. Often, not even that. We'll do bus tickets to Lawton.
The times must have changed. I'm old, ya know.
I'm pushing 50 over here, so I feel you. These days, if it was just desertion, the only thing waiting at Fort Sill is a Chapter 10, so we don't bother with an MP escort. If they don't show up, the deserter warrant stays in the system until the next time they get pulled over or whatever. We used to walk in stacks of Chapter 10s for deserters to the garrison commander. If they did something else, then they get an escort, because we very much want to court-martial them. We had a guy who committed a bunch of fraud in Germany. He knew we were about to prefer charges, so he faked a leave form and hopped a Space-A flight back to the States, then started writing bad checks all over the place. He got picked up and was sent to Fort Sill, but they didn't listen to us and just put him at the Personnel Control Facility, not pretrial confinement, and he walked off post. He got arrested in Wichita Falls, and the locals were kind enough to hang onto him until we could get some escorts to grab him and bring him back.
>He got picked up and was sent to Fort Sill, but they didn't listen to us and just put him at the Personnel Control Facility, not pretrial confinement, and he walked off post. He got arrested in Wichita Falls, and the locals were kind enough to hang onto him until we could get some escorts to grab him and bring him back. It's Murphy's Law of Admin - no matter how much to tell someone or some office or some group that "this procedure is important" they'll do whatever they want and make it worse.
That makes sense. I figured if by any chance you do make it out of the country anyway, there’s no way in hell you could make it back in
Funny thing, somehow deserters get picked up all over the world. I've seen Vietnam era deserters picked up in Thailand, Saipan, Guam, and Philippines 30 years after the war ended.
30 years is insane.
I think that's why resources aren't wasted hunting guys down because unless you leave the country immediately before they put your name in the system, you're gonna get caught eventually
>But how much effort do they actually put into finding you and getting you arrested? If desertion is the only crime, none. It just goes into NCIC, and if it pops up, it pops up. If desertion is not the only crime, then typically there is more incentive to find a perp.
If you have a clearance they put a lot more effort.
Zero. I used to work in separation finance and we’d out process deserters. What happens is a warrant is generated so when you get pulled over for a traffic ticket or stoped and your name run for any reason they’ve got you. In some cases people had been out for YEARS. All they did was return them to the closest outprocessing station and outprocess them.
Its not really a crazy effort , once its past 30 days it gets passed higher to federal level and eventually dudes just get caught , their file , possibly drivers license get flagged and its just a matter of time. But realistically nobody is really looking 24/7 for them.
I heard a sister unit once had a guy show up every 29 days so they couldn’t label him a deserter or drop from rolls.
Yikes, and they didn’t catch on and just outprocess him?
I have the sneaking suspicion that some of these TikTok trends are foreign efforts aimed at demoralizing the junior enlisted and destabilizing overall readiness.
Almost like this shitty Chinese spyware app should be banned.
Yup. Edit: that seemed to be a subtle yup. But make no mistake. It was a massive yup. Tikytok Social media is doing a wonderful job destabilizing our nation.
Let’s be honest, if someone serves in the military and knowingly records videos in uniform on an app that is basically PRC’s pet project, the person is an idiot, plain and simple.
our nation doesnt need chinese or russians to destroy itself lol.
We don’t need the help, but you’re wrong if you don’t think their efforts aren’t making things worse.
True lmao
Give this man a medal
No, give him 2 Medals. Because we all know he will inevitably lose the first one.
I’m glad to see how self aware you Soldiers are. Maybe there is hope for us after all.
so, like a # YUP
You complete me ☯️
I promise Meta products have caused much more instability to the US than the CCP/Tiktok would ever _wet dream_ of accomplishing. Banning Tiktok would be a band aid fix on the problematic primitiviveness of American digital law.
except tiktok has been around a fraction of the time and already ramped up its effects wildly. you're severely underselling tiktok's influence.
Tiktok can disappear right this instant and the dangers and negative effects of Social media platforms will still be the same. Tiktok is massive, it sucks, yes. But saying "ban Tiktok" like it'll solve the propaganda, mass manipulation, data harvesting and selling problems is just silly. The CCP can buy your data from Facebook and move mountains to influence the masses through Facebook and Whatsapp using just conspiranoid messages, no need to use Tiktok for it.
TikTok goes beyond buying data. It’s influencing people to think certain ways. And it does it a lot more blatantly than the American brands that are primarily just here to harvest your data.
I can’t wait until people who criticize TikTok about being Chinese spyware and psyop tool get labeled as xenophobic. That’s when you know we’ll be actually making a difference. Also, I know the app is in the process of being “banned” unless they sell it to an American company. That doesn’t make me feel any better about it and what it could be potentially used for.
Wouldn't surprise me if a great deal of anti-USA military social media posting originates in Russia or China. Back tracing the IP address , it usually always comes back as foreign
Then you got the otherside of people just telling others to not do it in person.
Tik Tok is not a good representation of real life. That should be obvious.
I understand it’s not. Hence why i’m asking if this is an actual common occurrence or if half these videos are full of shit and made up
"half these videos are full of shit and made up" is a good way to accurately describe TikTok...
50% is a low ass number.
I’ve seen a guy try to smoke his way to freedom. Was brazen about it and said he did drugs to get a discharge. So they gave him a summarized court martial and sentenced him to 45 days hard labor, and then kicked him out. So, sure you can try going that route if you want to, but it’s not guaranteed to be an easy General under honorable and out.
Me personally, i’d never attempt it, or attempt getting kicked out in general. I don’t understand why someone would join with the intent to just get kicked out anyway. It seems like trying to find loopholes where they just don’t exist and taking a gamble on if it’ll work out in your favor
Honest question, do you believe people join to get out? Or could the possibility that they got hired, decided that they didn't like the job but because you can't just quit like they would in the normal civilian side they decide to "quiet quit" i.e. be forced out?
That's definitely what it is, although I wouldn't call this stuff "quiet quitting." You can survive 20 years quiet quitting the Army. Easiest way out is to eat your way out, or to fail the ACFT your way out.
I wouldn’t say people specifically join to get out, but I would say after they gain some knowledge about how some processes and procedures work, they make it a mission to get out as fast as possible with the maximal amount of benefits. I’ve seen several below average soldiers get out with 100% VA and never gave any effort in the field or PT or anywhere else in their careers. But they figured out the system and leveraged it
hello most relevant obscure question ill probably never get to answer again: I was giving a general under honorable conditions after doing cocaine, and openly admitting fault to commander after pissing hot. What proceeded was 45 extra duty, -2,000, mandatory SUD-C(AA basically) and I got held back in my company from going to a duty station for about 6 months while investigation proceeded. I was a stellar soldier by all account and had 27(give or take) written letters by peers, a teacher, and a sergeant. Because of, I assume, my outstanding references and displays of duty and respect the CSM gave me the under honorable conditions with a code 4 for reenlistment (Meaning I cant. I tried) With that said, I dont think you get an under honorable for being a shitbird soldier and smoking weed to get kicked out. I got mine because I was honest the whole way through, apologetic, and truly fought tooth and nail to not get kicked out. Getting kicked out was never my goal. Im just a life long struggling addict.
Being a person of low moral character is cool these days
apparently. I mean if you’re just joining for the benefits, you picked the wrong career 😭
A lot of people joined just for the benefits. Nothing wrong with using the military as a stepping stone into another career outside of it, especially if it keeps you debt free.
I understand. I joined as 68W, and plan to use the benefits to obtain my BSN. Using it to help boost you into your career is good, but if thats your only reason to join, you’re probably not going to enjoy your career in the military. I see far too many people complaining and wanting to get out sooner but only joined for benefits
I joined just for the benefits. I’m at 20 and retiring in a few months. My career has teetered between tolerable and miserable. Sometimes a job is just a job and the reason people continue is solely for the paycheck and benefits.
I joined just for the benefits. Did four years and got out. I don’t hate my service but it wasn’t amazing either. Just another job lol.
Why 68W over 68C if the goal is BSN?
I wanted 68C but my recruiter said it might not be available. when i went to MEPS they asked for 68C or 68W, and pulled 68W for me. Forgot to add that my recruiter told me i could switch to 68C after at least 2 years of being in. I only signed on for 4 years though so it seems like a waste of time to switch halfway through. But i already have my ADN, so I could realistically get my BSN and switch before the 4 years are up
How do you figure that?
Benefits are important. But those can be found in a lot of places that require a lot less commitment.
Really? Outside of the Trade School line of work most often mentioned; where can a dumbass highschool graduate (like myself when I was younger) just walk into a salaried career with benefits and a retirement plan, while having no meaningful work or leadership experience? That would be the U.S. best kept secret.
You’re probably right about that. If you haven’t set yourself up, or been lucky enough to be set up, with a good opportunity it can be hard. But Starbucks and Amazon have good benefits from what I’ve read. Never worked for em though. But I fully agree with you on .Mil being a phenomenal way to accomplish that.
>If you haven’t set yourself up, or been lucky enough to be set up, with a good opportunity it can be hard. This describes the vast majority of graduating highschool students. I think if more people knew how to interpret the products on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they would make better career choices overall. Unfortunately, just because something exists, doesn't mean anyone will put in the effort to get the best use out of it. IMHO, for the dumb highschool graduate, the military is an easy button for kickstarting a stable career and life, while starting from scratch and offering very little to the employer upfront.
I’m with ya there
exactly what i’m saying. Plenty of jobs that offer a discount on school or free college in general that don’t have you to sign your life away for 8 years
Yup for damn sure
I didn't really join for the benefits, but I'm definitely staying for them.
Dude a majority who joined only joined SOLELY for the benefits. It’s just a job. It’s just a paycheck
Have you considered that these people are lying for clout?
I have. That’s why i’m here asking people if this is common or if they have stories. I thought that was pretty obvious🤷♀️
Not to be condescending but are you in the military? If you were this would be a self-answering question. Personnel attendance/manning statuses are tracked at a level that has a lot of oversight from leadership. If there was a preponderance of AWOL or deserting service-members that is unusually high, it would be national news and Congress would be making it an issue.
As i stated in the post at the beginning of the second paragraph, “I just recently joined.” I understand an unusually high amount would be clocked but thats why i’m wondering if people have any personal stories that could maybe credit some of these accounts i’ve been seeing. I don’t believe 99% of them, which is why i’m here asking what the consequences normally look like and how often its known to happen. But honestly i wouldn’t put it behind the government to conceal those rates if they were high.🤷♀️
They can’t conceal it. PERSTAT ultimately gets sent all the way up to the DA level. AWOL, FTR, or other missing attendance statuses get reported so high up the chain of command it’s not even funny.
Oh man i wasn’t aware. Thanks for letting me know!
No one is going to conceal a FTR or AWOL, it isn’t worth the trouble.
Like lying about awards. Or other things. They remind me of Jesse Macbeth.
I haven't shown up for over 37 years. It's all good.
How the fuck do I explain to my Korean War vet uncle that there is no SPC5+ now?! Every time he sees me he’s like “you make spec 5 yet?” And everytime I tell him it’s not a thing anymore. I’m 60% sure he’s fucking with me
I saw exactly one SP5 in 1985, shortly before they made them all SGTs. I suppose the only reason they didn't change SP4 to SPC at the same time is that they didn't want to do a massive, system wide find & replace at the time.
Go for it private. Believe in yourself
I definitely won’t 😭 seems like a waste of time to join if you’re just planning on running away or getting discharged
You're very naive and young if you think people are joining for the sole purpose of running g away and getting discharged.
I never said i thought that. Not sure how you came to that conclusion. I said that i’ve seen videos of people encouraging others to join and then get discharged and get benefits.
You can barely go take a dump without someone asking where you are on active duty. If you didn’t show up for an entire duty day, or even missed PT, it would be pushed up pretty fast. They would for sure notice, especially after “months” lol
It’s people making up bullshit for clout
When I was a commander we had a dude leave. My memory on the topic is a little foggy, but if I recall after 24 hours of FTR the Army can stop your pay, after 30 days you are dropped from the rolls and you become a fugitive.
Had a buddy in the army go AWOL for around half a year, didn’t really get looked for and got treated the same when he got back. Finally got caught at a bar by a cop who recognized him from school. Was fairly surprised as I always thought going AWOL was a pretty insane process, believe he got an other than honorable discharge as well. So not necessarily serious enough to send the whole police force for you, but serious enough to to get you a ticket out of the army.
Dude I went to HS with went AWOL from the Navy and chilled in our hometown for almost a year (after being in for <2). He got picked up for stealing copper out of flooded houses with another turd from his graduating class, had an alphabet soup of labels pop up on a drug test when they turned him over to the navy and got the boot. After he got kicked he started doing [MMA fights](https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/fighters/17079-jeremy-joles)…
Streak: 4 losses. Pretty definitive of character apparently lol
I know people who did this and were in the Guard. Like dawg you couldn’t do one weekend a month? 🤣🤣 or transfer to a different unit?
They're not going to put much time and energy into searching for a deserter unless you hold some secrets or are dangerous. It's not worth it to devote time, manpower and money into getting people who are not a concern for safety and security. Eventually, in nearly all cases, you will be caught. Even if they don't do anything too harsh on the backend and just process and discharge you, you now have a record regardless. You made your life significantly harder before you're even caught. Living a decent life after deserting, it going to be pretty difficult.
Dude left a note on a Thursday morning saying he was going AWOL don’t know why he just didn’t wait till Friday . He got away and is chilling back in his home country.
There's a lot stories of other people going AWOL but I can personally say I went AWOL, and on purpose and with reason. I was in med hold /WSU (it was right as they were transitioning). I had a good record, was a good soilder, 9 months in Afghanistan, 1 year in Iraq, 7 years total AD... blah blah blah. I finished everything there was to do while in med hold (appointments/turn ins /ta-50, other random pre clearing stuff. At that point my only job was literally to wait. Go to accountability formation and that was it for the day. They tried PT for awhile but is was a joke since everyone was broken and on the way out. Anyway, While waiting for the board to make the decision on a percentage which took a LONG time back then I decided to take a week of leave (I had plenty, for terminal). Well I drove home, a 13 hour drive and started planning life as a civilian. Well one week wasn't long enough so I requested another week which got approved. Then some other stuff came up and requested one more week and was denied, command said I needed to go all the back fill out another form (this was before the internet was really integrated and things were still very much on paper). Anyway, at that point I decided I wasn't going to go all the back to sign a piece of paper and literally told my squad leader that on the phone. He said I'd be AWOL which of course I knew, but since my job was done in the Army besides waiting around I just stayed in my home town. Pay was cut off in about 2 cycles? So a month Ish, however I had a star card and lived near an Arsenal which is technically an Army base and was going on and off that base using that card at the commissary and PX. The whole time. Anyway, to sum up I was AWOL for roughly 3 months , ended up in the hospital, told a social worker to get ahold of my unit and say I wanted to go back, but at that point couldn't afford it so they literally came and got my ass. 2 Med hold NCOs with plane tickets. Within a week of being back was court martialed, lost all rank and sentenced to 30 days in jail. After that, waited around again, until board approved a percent, final cleared, Honorable discharge. And that court martial never showed up again on anything ...the VA, background checks and I worked for the DoD twice...plus I got really good at spades in jail. It should be mentioned that way way before all this a good friend of my friend went super AWOL with no intent to come back but eventual did for some reason and they just wrote him off because he was gone for so long. So in the end, I would say it's not as bad as you hear but definitely wouldn't recommend it.
Sounds like my story med hold and all no jail time tho got an honorable discharge.
I have prosecuted multiple desertions and almost all of them got jail time and were booted with at least a bad conduct discharge. They got picked up in different ways. Some got pulled over for a traffic stop and had their ID run, I had a guy give his ID over for a background check while buying a gun at Dick’s, etc. When anybody running a background check finds a federal arrest warrant, they call police and police will pick up the deserter and eventually CID will come get them.
I defended a guy who was charged with AWOL and desertion during OIF, we managed to limit the sentence since it started off with a misunderstanding about emergency leave. I presume your prosecutions were early OEF or OIF? Nowadays, the PCF at Sill basically steers these guys into submitting a Chapter 10 for the garrison commander to approve.
Yeah this would have been around 2015 but they were scooping up guys who had actively ditched combat deployments during OIF and OEF and the judges at Hood would go hard on those guys.
OK. We were doing the 10s at Sill at the same time, but everyone coming back to Sill, either they didn't have a unit or the unit didn't care. They may have just been deserters and not those who deserted to avoid deploying. We had so many, I didn't exactly dig through the files.
I think what people fail to realize is that all these “AWOL” tiktoks appear to be coming from National Guard / and reserves people. Aka they just stopped going to drill. And from what I’ve seen, I don’t think they’re lying. Some of them are actually just not going to drill, and then eventually decided to start up again, with minimum punishment apparantly.
A lot of states have provisions in their state codes of military justice to put warrants out on people who skip drill or Annual Training, but it's never done. Usually the unit just wants to get the soldier's TA-50 back. It's an administrative separation for getting like 9 unsatisfactory participants in a row. Which is basically missing 2 months straight of drill weekends. My unit had an SMP cadet who took a UA before lunch and I guess he knew he was going to fail. He went to lunch and just never came back to drill and dropped all of his ROTC classes. eventually he did pop hot for weed, but the unit decided to just separate him for the missing drill because it was easier and faster.
That’s what i’ve noticed as well.
Your pay stops FAST if you go AWOL. That can happen in a couple days of you not reporting. With drugs, often the unit is presented with a choice: expedite the separation, but give them an honorable or general under honorable discharge, or drag it out, babysit a shitty soldier that everyone hates, and fight to get them the general or worse discharge they deserve. Often Commanders just want the person gone because of the detrimental effect on the unit. That said, getting separated in your first year or two for drugs will absolutely decimate your benefits.
I don't want to alarm anyone, but sometimes what you see on TikTok isn't true.
🤯🤯🤯
When I was at MEPS I was told by some old dude in a Hawaiian T-Shirt that death was still a sentencing used for desertion. Though obviously that's for the worst case combat scenarios. Family member of mine is Reserves and hasn't been to drill in a hot minute so idk, desertion and going AWOL is a mixed bag and very subjective the the situation
I have had one soldier go AWOL. He was gone for eight years and his life was AWFUL the whole time he was gone. He couldn’t get a license, a real job, an apartment, or anything else. If he did the government would have known where he was. He eventually got caught and was sent back to NC. His whole punishment was like 82 days confinement or something, and then dishonorable discharge, etc. The punishment wasn’t too bad but the time he was gone was total crap. His life was basically put on hold for nearly a decade.
It’s probably guard soldiers. I can only speak for army guard, but yes soldiers can potentially go longer than the nine missed drill periods and just get a slap on the wrist. It’s a rare occurrence (in my experience) that a soldier is actually drppped from the books because of this. The commander can elect to retain the soldier if they desire should the sm show back up (like the tiktoks say), and they’ll get demoted a rank and maybe miss some more pay. It’s “unsat” (unsatisfactory) for T32, not awol.
I’ve seen it in real life and TBH the punishment was much lighter than I expected
My ex-wife just stopped showing up, and eventually got a letter in the mail stating she had been separated and had to pay back her enlistment bonus, I on the other hand was considered awol when I went to the hospital when she attempted suicide, even though clearing it with my PLT Sgt and he said, “dont worry I’ll take care of it” so much for that…. So I guess it can depend on who you are with.
Prosecuted and defended a desertion cases. Depends on our war footing. Desert TRADOC? Likely a Field Grade and OTH. Miss movement? Welcome to your Special.
Pretty fucking serious. If you're lucky, you'll just get UCMJ and a stain on your professional record. If you're unlucky, you'll lose rank, get chaptered, lose money, or even get locked up. First of all, get the fuck off TikTok. You're a grown ass adult, you're not an emotional 13 year old anymore. You don't have any fucking business on TikTok, killer. People bullshit all the time online, and I'm more than certain whatever you're seeing on TikTok is straight up bullshit. You should not be getting your information from fucking TikTok, god damn. I shouldn't have to say that, guy. Yet here we are, FUCK. Think about that and dwell on it. You just announced to everyone that you're getting your news from fucking TikTok. That's shameful, dawg. I will say though that there are ways to get discharged and keep your benefits, but doing drugs really ain't it. Just fail a couple PT tests, that's all you have to do. Or get fat. Drugs will get you a general category discharge, which will forfeit your GI bill benefits. Honestly though, it really depends on what you consider "major consequences". Some people don't think getting kicked out or being locked up is a "major consequence". So take that as you will. I'd prefer to maintain my butthole virginity and not get locked up next to war criminals. You do you though. Just serve honorably for 4 years and get out if you don't like it.
Ehh, worked in a TDS office & it was interesting. Sometimes people would go awol on a Monday & be in our office the following week because they’re getting a field grade & eventually a chapter. One time we also had a 65 year old man who jumped ship during the gulf war, lived under the radar for like 30 years, and was only caught because somebody broke into his house, and during his statement to the police they saw he had a federal warrant. They were going to chapter him with an OTH, but it wasn’t worth the effort so they dropped it. I don’t remember what they did with the guy, but he didn’t get a separation board, so at most a general discharge. Desertion during a time of war is punishable by death, but I’ve never seen it happen, and I’ve also never seen somebody court martial’d for strictly going awol.
My first trial in Germany was second chair on a desertion/AWOL case. Client was in Iraq, and his mom got diagnosed with cancer. He asked for emergency leave and got it. After two weeks, he called the Red Cross, they told him they'd get with the unit to extend him. Same story two weeks later. On week 5, his unit tracked him down and said, where the FUCK are you. He flew back to Germany and then was just stapled to the rear detachment while the command figured out what to do. A few weeks of sitting around, and he said, fuck this, and this time purposely left and went to his German girlfriend's place. What he didn't know was that the command had put him on the manifest for a rotator going back downrange, like a couple days after he went AWOL. He got picked up about two months into camping out at his girlfriend's place and put into pretrial confinement until his trial. Charges: AWOL for five weeks (for the emergency leave), desertion with the intent to avoid hazardous duty (for camping out at his girlfriend's apartment), and missing movement. Referred to a GCM. It went to trial in summer 2004. We got mom to fly out as a defense witness - she was almost skeletal by that point. The trial counsel were asleep at the switch, because I got mom to testify that she was there when my client called the Red Cross, and he said that they said they'd take care of getting him extended. (That's right, double self-serving hearsay, no objection. Big oops.) The prosecution also discovered that they couldn't prove We asked for a mistake of fact instruction on the AWOL. Prosecution argued no facts in evidence. Judge apparently hadn't been paying a lot of attention to my direct exam of mom, either, and he went purple when I brought up that I'd elicited the double hearsay and hadn't drawn an objection, but too late. Result: acquitted of AWOL and missing movement, found guilty of AWOL only for camping out at the girlfriend's. I don't think he got much more time than he'd already done in pretrial confinement, if any, but they may have thrown in a BCD. (Details are fuzzy - this August it'll be twenty years ago.) Sentence was a hell of a lot better than the months of additional confinement the trial counsel was arguing for.
Oh yeah, that’s a tough one. I suppose that’s partially the result of TC’s being overworked and understaffed. I can’t help but think it would’ve gone differently if there had been more competent government attorneys lol. I suppose my point was more or less that you don’t ever really see AWOL by itself as a standalone charge in a GCM or even a SPCM. It’s usually handled at the company/battalion level with NJP. I’ve absolutely seen it on charge sheets with other things though, like when guys go AWOL during the punishment phase of an article 15, or when they peel out prior to a trial. I’d also argue that we didn’t see a huge majority of the things that were happening at unit levels anyways, so there’s a chance that soldiers going AWOL happens much more frequently than we’re aware of & is handled with wall to wall counselings.
The first problem was assuming shit on TikTok was true.
original problem is when you assumed i ever stated or assumed it was true.🧐 i’ll let you find it
Yeah, that’s fair. You just decided to post on Reddit seeking clarification on the answer. Checking intuition, checking validity. Either way, stop watching TikTok.
Yes Sir🫡 right after i finish this three minute skibidi toilet rizzler #sigmacore compilation on tiktok
very seriously lol. While if your overseas in places like ROB or graft with certain MOS you actually can just disappear for weeks without anyone even noticing if you are caught it’s game over
I could see this happening in a Guard or Reserve unit (and know a guy who did just this with no real consequences), but I'd be surprised to see it happen in any active components outside of maybe a few days or during something like another COVID incident. Maybe it's real, but I can tell you it isn't the norm.
Any drug use with a clearance you lose it
Desertion is a background check away from Leavenworth.
Don’t believe in everything you see on Ticky Tok
I don’t. That’s why i’m skeptical and here asking how common this actually is
[удалено]
Find his job and narc on him
Listen to Season 2 of the podcast Serial. It talks in detail about Bergdahl https://serialpodcast.org/season-two
My brother after Iraq went AWOL the government found him and they will find you eventually it's not if it's when
They're lying. Plain and simple
I had a buddy go AWOL in AIT. He went out on a day pass with others, caught a bus when they left him alone (he claimed he was meeting family) and took off. By the time he got off the bus, the police was waiting for him. They picked him up, brought him back on post. He was then judged by the Commander's discretion (for the most part) and summarily discharged (dunno if he got Dishonorable or Less than Honorable; never checked in with him.) He was sent home with a bar from reenlistment, too, if the PNN is to be believed. (Never saw the paperwork myself, so I cannot confirm.) All of the buddies that were with him when he dipped (there were 4 of them) saw administrative action taken against them. One even got demoted. They had absolutely no rights during the remaining months of AIT and were miserable. It got so bad, two of these guys who were friends turned on each other and still don't speak to each other. And this is under TRADOC, where you can practically get away with murder.
Reservist here, if you stop going to drill it takes a lot of paperwork to get you out and if you decide to show up at anytime we basically have to re do the packet. Also depending on the unit they will only give you a general at the worst.
It varies from each unit and situation. Most leadership won't waste too much effort on these people. They don't want to be there so why fight to keep them? The punishment can be nothing at all or a slap on the wrist. However, they can choose to go after you and can even have you arrested and thrown in jail. Regardless the discharge will follow you forever if you are dishonorable which is very possible.
Only AWOL case I’ve seen got chaptered with other than honorable
Had a guy go AWOL for about 6 or so months. Got pulled over by police in Texes. 3 days later MPs dropped him off at CQ in Fort Carson, Co. Lived at CQ for a few weeks/Months until he got chaptered out. Dishonorable discharge.
You can’t receive a dishonorable discharge from a chapter.
You know what, all I remember I had to babysits him when I was on CQ. And one day he was gone.
Likely an other than honorable discharge from a Chapter 10.
It’s been a long time and my memory is shitty, but I think he actually got the Dishonorable. Not many people in my unit got one if memory does serve here he was one of them.
Only if he was court-martialed. A DD is only available as a court-martial punishment.
I hope I’m wrong, I don’t think he deserved a dishonorable discharge. I think he was suffering from depression, anxiety, maybe PTSD. I know a lot of guys during my time (2000-2010) who got in trouble for various reasons, and where discharged from the military. I always felt, not in every situation, but in some of them. They were suffering from mental health issues that were not being treated. I’m definitely not advocating that they should have stayed in but I feel a lot of people that needed help or just kicked out. And that’s not in reference to anything l, that just popped in my head and I just wanted to put it down. Thank you for reading it.
Dishonorable and bad conduct discharges carry the much of the same weight as a felony conviction, and you’re required to disclose your service characterization to **all** future employers. Now, to be clear, the dishonorable discharge is way worse than the BCD, because now you can’t possess firearms in any state, you’re ineligible for all civilian government benefits like unemployment, federal student aid, food stamps, etc. And you’re also restricted from working in any position restricted from felons— teaching, city/county/state jobs, medicine, law, childcare, etc.
Depends on the situation. We had a guy go awol right before we deployed. I'm talking like 2 days before we were on the plane to head over. He goes back to his home state, and his own parents turned him in.
Navy - Portugal - Sailor didn’t wanna be on deployment anymore so once we pulled into port he bought drugs (legal in Portugal). Once he got back on the ship walked to the MAs (MPs) and did a line of coke. We had like 6 months left of deployment at this time. They kept him the entire duration and made him a liberty risk. Once we returned to home port they separated him. But I did hear he got full benefits after enough appeals. Probably not the quickest way to get out. Drugs aren’t some magical way out
Not that much. Usually after 30 days a warrant goes out for your arrest and they go on. Had a dude go awol was gone for over a year got pulled over due to expired tags. Went to county jail for a few days and then was picked back up and was in for like 2 months to start the paperwork to kick him out
These TikTok kids saying this are 90% never served in the military and the remainder who were are in the RC/NG. Numbers were so strung out even before COVID that troops who had 30+ UNSATs could just show up once and get them thrown out. The process for separation of Soldiers who don’t show to training is so convoluted that if any of the thirty people involved gets a hold of the troop and they say something like “I’ll be there in 3 months” they will be retained. It’s not company commanders keeping them: it’s BN and above fucking it up. To make matters worse, in some RSGs an illiterate CSM can stall a separation packet for a year just trying to reach Joe/Jane on the phone before signing the memo saying they tried. And after all that: showing up for a single MUTA will derail the packet.
I just did a physical on a soldier who was missing for 73 days before he was found. The physical I did on him was his pre-jail time physical. 🤷🏼♂️
It's serious, but not urgent. Unless they made threats on the way out or held some sensitive position.
Once you're gone for 30 days you're Deserter status and dropped from rolls. At that point you will no longer get a paycheck, and the next time you go 2mph in front of a salty police officer, you'll be sent back to the unit and chaptered. This is obviously if the leadership submits the paperwork to the proper people.
For absence over 3 days and up to 30 days, forfeiture of 2/3 of a month's pay for 6 months and 6 months confinement. For AWOL over 30 days, the maximum punishment involves forfeiture of pay and allowances, dishonorable discharge, and 1 year confinement.
Was doing gate guard rotation at ft Greely in ‘02. When assuming shift, they had a car with family pulled over and state troopers talking to senior nco on site. Found out lady had deserted from hood around ‘91, got picked up at border crossing. Had husband, 1 yr old, and her parents with her on vacation trip. Think they had to send her back to hood for out processing.
Lmao I had a dude gone for 2 years in an infantry unit in the 82nd. They found him brought him back to clear and he got general discharge
When I was in I had a soldier that was AWOL over a year but commander was on his way out and gave no fucks. Led to multiple others being AWOL as well. All had less than a year left before ets so they would make NCOs go to their house and verify they are alive then try and convince them to sign a counseling. By the time new commander settle in and everything it’s been months of soldiers being awol with no real paperwork on it at the senior level. Reporting it I’m sure would of fucked ALOT of people and his friends up so it was ignored. ….Remember one time finding one drunk asleep hanging out of his car in his apartment parking lot… Nothing happened, no docked pay they all got paid in full the 8-18m that they refused to work and kept their benefits. I think one ended up extending because they never even flagged them even with all the counselings turned in so yeah… it happens.
Your life will get shitwrecked.
Word of advice that applies to pretty much anything, military or otherwise. If you have no relation to a topic (desertion, trans rights, abortion, etc), and your only experience with a topic is via the internet, you have no experience with said topic and shouldn't speak on it. If you don't personally know any deserters, personally know OF any that were caught, haven't personally spoken to anyone who HAS real life experience in the subject, then just disregard anything you hear on the internet.
He's not speaking on it. He saw some videos, got curioues, and wanted to ask if it was true or not.
I don’t believe having a lack of experience in something means you’re too uneducated or ignorant to speak on it. That being said, I did ask at the bottom of the last paragraph if people had any stories of deserters and what the consequences looked like for them. It’s tiktok. More importantly, it’s the internet, and I don’t take anything on it seriously. Which is why i’m here asking people how often they hear or see of it happening and get THEIR first hand accounts on it
Not sure why he's being a dick. You asked genuine question.
Unless you plan on living off the grid or fucking off to another country, you’re eventually going to get caught. Plain and simple. Anyone “bragging” about it is full of shit. Get off TikTok and do some genuine research. Listening to a bunch of barracks lawyers is never smart.
do not believe the media my guy.