[Girlene]

without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;

Packing his things up and sending them home, is a signal that he intended to remain away permanently.

Now, since he was picked up fairly quickly by his captors, we don't know if he might have changed his mind after a bit and returned to his post willingly. The fact that he tried to escape at least once also signals that he might have changed his mind eventually.

But he cannot change the fact that he initially intended this to be permanent...thus, desertion best describes his actions five years ago.

[digger48]

We were told he tried to escape by the very people trying to deflect this situation.

I’ll take that info with a grain of salt