Just about anyone who served from the mid 1970's - 1981 knows that many simply walked off for 31 days, went to a different command to turn themselves in, and got at the most two weeks Brig time {usually not though} and then a Less Than Honorable out which has also had it's stigma removed.
I got out in 1980 Honorable separation at my EAOS. No one not one single person has asked to see my DD/214 for a job, loan, or any other thing. As soon as I got out I saw guys I had gone to high school with who had been out two years and a couple of them I had to work with. Only VA has asked to see my DD/214 for benefits and a funeral director asked for it to give it again to the VA for my wife's burial.
This man deserted in time of war and people died due to it. Not even so much as involuntary manslaughter conviction? This was very serious misconduct he didn't just desert on a base in the US in peacetime. Terrorist are free thanks to O'Traitors deal releasing dangerous GITMO prisoners in exchange for him. Not that O'Traitors arm had to be twisted mind you. He was just looking for an excuse to release them any excuse at all. Personally I wish they would have kept him prisoner over there.
Our military is reaching a crisis in many aspects and a return to the UCMJ as the law of the Armed Forces is needed & needs to be enforced. No amount of money in programs will help until discipline including the banishment of high risk behaviors and associations {meaning with Islam} is restored & enforced. That should apply from E-1 up to and including the chair warming princes in the Pentagon and JCOS.
I’m fearful that a crisis war is the only thing that will shake our military out of it’s culture of demoralization.
Mattis might be a knowledgeable general but I wouldn’t trust him. He’s politicized.
I don’t want such a war but weakness and decadence has a way of attracting them.