A deserter from Fort Bragg who was ordered deported from Canada last week would probably have gotten a lighter punishment if he had simply stayed in the United States and quietly turned himself in, Army statistics suggest.
Former 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman, 29, and his supporters in the United States and Canada think he'll be court-martialed for desertion if he is forced to return, in part because he fled to Canada and in part because he has been outspoken about his case and his opposition to the war in Iraq. The Canada Border Services Agency ruled Wednesday that Hinzman, his wife and two young children would have to leave by Sept. 23.
A simple definition of "deserter" is a service member who has been absent without leave for more than 30 days. The military doesn't usually hunt them, but civilian authorities pick up some during routine traffic stops or arrests for civilian crimes, and hand them over to the military.
Deserters who remain in the United States and turn themselves in quietly are seldom prosecuted for the offense. Instead, many are given administrative penalties, including one of various types of discharge that make it more difficult to get a civilian job. Others return to duty with punishments such as loss of rank.
The number of deserters dipped as the Iraq war began and then rose again, from about 2,650 in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2005, to a little less than 4,700 last fiscal year. But in 2007, just 108 were convicted of desertion. That is a typical figure since the war began.
The act of turning yourself in can prevent prosecution for desertion because it's obvious proof you have returned, said Chuck Fager, director of Quaker House, a Fayetteville group that for decades has counselled troops who want to leave the military or who have left it.
"When someone comes back voluntarily, even years later, they almost always aren't prosecuted for desertion," Fager said.
Fager counselled Hinzman before he deserted and has continued to talk to him regularly about his situation.
"Our preference would have been for him to turn himself in, but we don't advise people what to do," Fager said. "We can tell them what has happened to others in the same situation."
No killing
Hinzman, speaking in a telephone interview from Canada, said he probably would have been prosecuted in any case because he has firm convictions about war and killing, and would have spoken out regardless of which means he'd chosen to leave the Army.
"I'd happily go to jail rather than shoot innocent Iraqis or kill anyone," he said, adding that he believes the Iraq war is wrong.
It was after training that he realized he couldn't kill, Hinzman said. He applied for conscientious objector status before his unit was sent to Afghanistan, and he was allowed to stay in the United States while his request was considered.
He said that he would have had no problem going into combat, as long as he didn't have to kill. In the application, Hinzman said, he offered to serve in a front-line unit as a medic.
When his application was denied and his unit ordered to Iraq in 2003, he decided to desert. He, his wife and their young son arrived in Canada in January 2004, where they officially sought refugee status. They added a baby girl to the family a few weeks ago.
Canada has proved less hospitable to modern deserters than it was to American draft dodgers and deserters who fled north during the Vietnam War. Hinzman's application to stay was rejected by the country's Supreme Court, and then came the border agency's decision. There is still a chance the Canadian government will let them stay, Hinzman said, but otherwise he likely will be handed over to U.S. civilian authorities and taken back to Fort Bragg for court-martial.
Consequences vary
Most who desert do so for reasons other than conscience or politics, said Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon. More common causes are personal, family or financial issues.
Deserters are typically junior enlisted soldiers; about three-quarters are in their first term of service.
The maximum sentence for desertion during wartime is death, though no one has received that sentence for desertion during the current wars, and it isn't likely when desertion is the only offense, Edgecomb wrote in an e-mail response to questions about desertion.
Punishment can vary greatly from case to case because commanders have broad discretion, Fager said. He said one soldier with a high-powered attorney was somehow out of the Army in just two weeks with a good discharge on his record. In other cases, troops get harsh punishment for no discernable reason. "It's always very difficult to say what will happen in any given case," he said.
A frequent outcome is "discharge in lieu of court-martial," in which the military boots out the GI with a blotch on his record in return for dropping charges.
Even that, though, isn't a minor penalty, he said. "So they come out with the equivalent of a prison record without ever having gotten their day in court," he said. "Then we get all these calls, like 'How do I get rid of this discharge?' "
