Posted on 09/21/2006 4:01:03 AM PDT by Froufrou
The wife of a soldier who has gone absent without leave (AWOL) addressed a group of anti-war protestors in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, thanking them for their support and urging leniency for her husband.
Army Specialist Agustin Aguayo went AWOL Sept. 2 in Germany after his application for conscientious objector status was denied by the military. Aguayo was ordered to go to Iraq but fled from his superiors.
Conscientious objectors are men or women who are "opposed to serving the armed forces and/or bearing arms on the grounds of moral or religious principles," according to the Selective Service System (SSS), which maintains the registry of citizens eligible for the military draft.
Aguayo filed a request for conscientious objector status during his first tour of duty in Iraq from February 2004 to February 2005.
"He joined believing he could do everything that's required," Aguayo's wife, Helga, said in a news conference at "Camp Democracy," a 17-day anti-war protest in progress on the National Mall. "He realized that he couldn't do it."
Aguayo said "there was no way that he could take someone's life."
The Army denied Aguayo's application to be a conscientious objector in August 2004 and a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 24, 2006 denied his request for a writ of habeas corpus. Aguayo was ordered to report for his return to Iraq Sept. 1, 2006.
He reported Sept. 2, expecting to be court-martialed for failure to obey orders. Instead the Army "insisted on sending Aguayo to Iraq by force, in handcuffs if necessary," according to his website.
As sergeants waited in Aguayo's living room for him to gather his gear, he slipped out a back window, going AWOL, his wife said at the news conference.
"My husband is the type of person who has never broken the rules," Helga Aguayo said. "It takes courage to do what he's doing."
Aguayo told reporters that she doesn't know where her husband is hiding, but said he has contacted her by telephone to tell her that he's safe. She said Agustin Aguayo is planning on turning himself in to military authorities but did not say when he would do so.
A conscientious objector is required to provide a written statement to the military to explain "how he arrived at his beliefs" and "the influence his beliefs have had on how he lives his life," according to the SSS.
"Beliefs may be moral or ethical," the SSS states on its website. "However, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims."
Soldiers recognized as conscientious objectors may either serve in a non-combative role in the armed forces or if they are entirely opposed to military service, be discharged.
Helga Aguayo contends that her husband enlisted in the military believing he could fight a war, but upon arriving in Iraq realized he would be unable to pull the trigger of his military-issued M-16. She said he conducted patrols in Iraq with an unloaded weapon due to his beliefs.
Maj. Nathan Banks, a spokesman for the Army, stated in an e-mail to Cybercast News Service that the military tries to accommodate "genuine conscientious objectors, but it is important to remember that Soldiers serve in an all-volunteer Army because they chose to."
He said new recruits sign a statement indicating that they are not a conscientious objector at the time of their enlistment. "Claims based on conscientious objection growing out of experiences before entering military service, which did not become fixed until after the person's entry into the service, will be considered," Banks wrote. He added that requests are not favorably considered if they are based "solely upon policy, pragmatism, or expedience ... insincerity ... [or] objection to a certain war."
Banks declined to comment specifically on Aguayo's request for conscientious objector status or what would happen to Aguayo if and when he turns himself in.
During 2004, the year Aguayo applied for conscientious objector status there were 67 applications in all. The military granted 33 of the requests. From the beginning of 2003, the year the war in Iraq began, until the end of 2005 there were 188 requests for discharge or reassignment. Eighty-seven of the requests were granted.
Banks added that as of January 2006, there are 12 conscientious objectors serving in non-combative roles on active duty.
The military does not actively look for deserters -- defined as soldiers who are AWOL for more than 30 days, Banks said, but when they do return to military control most deserters are returned to their unit. "Our primary course of action is to attempt to rehabilitate the Soldier, reintigrate [sic] him/her back into their unit," he said. "Very few deserters are tried by courtmartial, only 176 in fiscal year 2004. Each case is evaluated on its own merit."
While courts martial for desertion are rare, penalties can include dishonorable discharge and up to five years in prison. In a time of war, deserters potentially face the death penalty.
Must be some new definition of the word I've never heard of.
Leniency?
Hell no, throw this nancy boy in jail with a bunch of real criminals.
Yes, climbing out one's window also seems cowardly, does it not?
It takes something all right. I'm not sure that courage is the word I'd use.
So he endangered his own life and the lives of his buddies by being completely useless (indeed, a liability) by not having a loaded weapon on patrols. If he had simply refused to go out on patrol that would be one thing, but deliberately endangering his buddies makes him scum of the earth!
Did he not realize that joining the armed services would most likely require killing the enemy? What a coward. I would join if I wasn't too old. I would love to kill some rag heads for my country.
"Paging George Orwell. Mr. Orwell, please pick up the red courtesy phone..."
Up to 30 days (October 2), he is AWOL. After that, they consider him a deserter. He is not yet one, but he will be one.
Yes. I posted it because I found it so disgusting.
We have an all-volunteer army in the United States.
If this a-hole didn't want to be a soldier, why did
he join the army in the first place? Ship his ass
to Leavenworth.
Correct. He is a deserter.
Yes, by that measure he is. But the real difference comes down to intent. Does he intend to return? It doesn't sound like it to me.
The UCMJ provides for three levels of intent: Missing Movement, Absent Without Leave, and Desertion. Desertion is when you have no intention of ever returning. I think he fits this precisely, but in 10 days it will be so if he doesn't return, as you say.
off with his head, send him to the nearest VFW hall and see what happens
He's probably in France and the french will probably give the deserter protection there.
He signed up for the free education. No one ever told him he might have to kill someone who wanted to kill him. It's the Army's fault for not making that clear.
Why do we allow these so called conscientious objectors in the military anyway? They weren't drafted, they signed up voluntarily. I say, throw him in the brig, make him repay all back wages and then give him a dishonorable discharge and let him carry that around for the rest of his life.
I can't help but wonder about the validity of the story. I thought the military gave conscientious objector status fairly easy. After all, it makes sense to find another role for him than to allow him to become a burden and danger to his fellow soldiers.
Good point. Most of the epics and sagas of world history which celebrate bravery and courage are filled with accounts of heroes and warriors slipping secretly out of back windows and running away.
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