Posted on 09/27/2006 6:33:20 AM PDT by pabianice
LOS ANGELES - An Army medic who fled rather than serve a second tour in Iraq because he believes war is immoral turned himself in Tuesday to face a possible court-martial.
Army Spec. Agustin Aguayo, 34, turned himself in around 6 p.m. at Fort Irwin, an Army base in the Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles, said Army spokesman Ken Drylie.
"It is the right thing to do," said Aguayo at a news conference in Los Angeles hours before going to the base. "I'm not a deserter or a coward."
Aguayo said he expected to face a court martial and some jail time.
"It's something I can live with," he said. "Something I can't live with is being a participant of war anymore."
Aguayo has unsuccessfully fought the Pentagon for more than two years to be declared a conscientious objector and win a discharge.
Aguayo, a U.S. citizen who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, said he was not anti-war when he enlisted in 2002. But his military experiences changed his mind. He applied for conscientious objector status in February 2004 before he was sent overseas.
He served a year as a combat medic in Tikrit, Iraq, in 2004 after the military turned down his request.
He then jumped out of a window of his base housing in Germany on Sept. 2 rather than be forced to ship out for a second tour with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment.
"I have come to believe that it is wrong to destroy life, that it is wrong to use war, that it is immoral, and I can no longer go down this path," Aguayo said.
After being taken into custody, Aguayo will be sent to either Fort Sill in Oklahoma, or Schweinfurt, Germany, said John Wagstaffe, an Army spokesman at Fort Irwin. Army officials would then decide whether to court martial him, said Wagstaffe.
Aguayo likely will be charged with being AWOL and with a separate charge of missing movement because he didn't ship out to Iraq with his unit, said James Klimaski, one of Aguayo's Washington attorneys.
Other Soldiers who went AWOL and claimed they were conscientious objectors have been sentenced between a couple of months to two years in confinement and given bad conduct discharges, Klimaski said.
Last year, Aguayo sued in federal court in Washington to overturn the military's rejection of his conscientious objector bid. He lost the court case but has appealed the decision. Arguments are scheduled for November. If Aguayo wins his lawsuit on appeal, that would overturn any court-martial decision, Klimaski said.
Sure, it's all fun and games until someone starts shooting at you.
He should have thought about that BEFORE he joined the military.
The man does not get paid to have an opinion.
Hey, nothing wrong if you are yellow with surrendering to the law.
Better than surrendering to the enemy.
General discharge.......just be rid of him, we don't need his headline grabbing crap.
He swore an oath. Send his sorry arse to Ft Leavenworth.
So he is what he is.
He did serve for one year in combat. That's more than I have done and more than a lot of people here have done.
In other words, he became a cowardly POS when he realized that real bullets and bombs were being used and that someone out there really wanted to kill him.
I have no sympathy nor respect for this kind of crap.
If you are opposed to war to this degree, it is my opinion that you damn well know it long before you go to fight a war, especially in todays volunteer Army.
He's a despicable coward, nothing more, nothing less.
Now he's a darling of the nutjob leftists.
Someone needs to check his immigration papers. Not everyone serving in the US Military are citizens.
And because he was AWOL, American soldiers in need of an experienced combat medic may have died or suffered greater injury.
Where's General Patton when you need him. Send this "god damned coward" back to the front lines!
He applied for conscientious objector status in February 2004 before he was sent overseas.
General Benedict Arnold served heroically in combat for many years before he turned coward and traitor.
But that's okay, he was what he was.
Leni
We have a winner!!!! At least he could have gone over the fence a few months sooner so that the Army manpower machine didn't have to deploy his unit shorthanded.
The funny thing here is that the media and the lefties drop these guys like hot potatoes immediately after their convictions at Court Martial. No longer useful I guess.
Cowards like him (and their handlers too) slap our true heroes in the face...the men and women who buck up, do their duty (and beyond) and face the enemy every day with courage and honor.
Oh and by the way, if no one beats me to it:
It's all Bush's fault.
all that will accomplish is to give the anti-war crowd another hero to rally around. Time to just let these people fade away..........
Good point, Leni.
As much as I respect your opinion, ignoring this and letting him just fade away would be severely prejudicial to good order in the military. Military members just can't decide which orders they choose to obey and which ones they won't (unless the order is unlawful, of course).
Oh, I understand this completely.......order in the ranks is very good, with only the once in a while incident being reported upon, and blown out of proportion. All I am suggesting is that if this dude is a conciensous objector, regardless of when this change occured in him, just get rid of him and deny the media it's field day......the media is far worse for morale than dumping this dude and moving on.....
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