AWOL soldiers reconsider return to U.S.

[David]

AP


LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Since going to Canada to avoid another deployment to Iraq, Corey Glass has considered returning to the United States. But after hearing that a fellow former soldier who surrendered to the military and was ordered to return to his unit instead of being discharged, Glass may not return at all.

"They're not going to win the hearts and minds like that," said Glass, 24, who signed on with the Indiana National Guard in 2002.

Kyle Snyder, a one-time combat engineer who joined the military in 2003, disappeared Wednesday, a day after surrendering at Fort Knox and 18 months after fleeing to Vancouver instead of redeploying to Iraq.

Snyder, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., said a deal had been reached for a discharge, but he found out he would be returned to his unit at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

His troubles are complicating efforts for those among the 220 American soldiers who fled to Canada and want to return to the United States, according to lawyers, soldiers and anti-war activists.

"Nobody's going to come back from Canada anymore," said James Fennerty, a Chicago-based attorney who represents Snyder and other AWOL soldiers.

Several soldiers who went to Canada have said they don't want to return to Iraq. Sgt. Patrick Hart, who deserted the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 101st Airborne Division in August 2005, a month before his second deployment, said he felt misled about the reasons for the war.

"How can I go over there if I don't believe in the cause? I still consider myself a soldier, but I can't do that," said Hart, a Buffalo, N.Y., native who served more than nine years in the military.

"The whole story behind it, it all feels like a big lie," Glass said. "I ain't fighting for no lie."

Fennerty said he reached a deal with the Army allowing Snyder, a private with the 94th Engineer Battalion, to receive an other-than-honorable discharge.

It's a deal similar to one Darrell Anderson, a 24-year-old Iraq war veteran, received in October. After three days at Fort Knox, Anderson, who has denounced the war as "illegal" and "immoral," was released to his family in Lexington, then discharged.

But Snyder ended up at a bus station in Louisville, with orders to go to St. Louis, then Fort Leonard Wood. Snyder, who said the brutality of what he saw happening to civilians in Iraq prompted him to desert, left with an anti-war activist instead of going back to the post.

Gini Sinclair, a Fort Knox spokeswoman, declined to address Snyder's case. But she said deserters who turn themselves in are automatically returned to their units if the unit is in the United States at the time of surrender. Once reunited with the unit, the commander there decides what becomes of the soldier, Sinclair said.

When a soldier surrenders at Fort Knox and is sent to his unit, he is either put on a plane or a bus, sometimes alone, she said.

"In some cases, they will be escorted," Sinclair said. "I don't know what decides if that happens."

That policy, and the question of whether an AWOL soldier can reach a deal that trumps it, is causing consternation among soldiers.

"After what they did to him, I don't see anybody going back," said Glass, a Fairmount, Ind., native who is currently in Toronto.

Some are seeking refugee status in Canada. Hart, who was joined in Toronto by his wife and their 3-year-old son, served time in Bosnia in the early 1990s, became a reserve, then went to Iraq after returning to active duty. The idea of returning to the United States is appealing to Hart, because he would like to see family and friends.

"I could see going back under some kind of amnesty program or something like that," Hart said. "But I don't trust them. My enemy isn't foreign now. It's domestic."

[Jerry D]

I would send all the deserters back to their units in Iraq or Afganistan too. Deserters according to the UCMJ are eligible during time of war for the death penalty and to be killed via fireing squad in the Field.

[zuni_rocket]

Not to worry! Democrats are in control now and he like that traitor John F"in" Kerry who consorted with the enemy will get a pardon, clean slate and will even get to run for congress as long as they are 'demorats'! Jim Bishop

[39mto39g]

deserters
Canada can keep them. There should be no talk with deserters. He joined the military. His opinion means nothing. What should happen is for the Government to go to the Social security office and remove his name from the records, go to his birth place and remove the record of his birth, cancel his citizenship. End communications.
on

[SEATJERKER]

...

...I would agree with Ron, and then some,...

...To run off, and quit on your Brothers, and Sisters, and tuck their tail between their yellow backside is inexcusable,...

...strip them of every right afforded to the citizens of the United States of America,...

.."personna non gradis",...

...

[Stick]

Mark this as a RED LETTER DAY when I have to totally agree with Ron. Eventually I had to give some respect to those that chose to go to jail instead of serving in the armed forces and going to RSVN, but I never had any respect for those that left the country and THE major disagreement that I had with our most recently deceased President was the amnisty that he gave to those cowards.

[39mto39g]

Stick
All you got to do is bring your thinking up a few notches and you can agree with me more often.
Vietnam protesters are different , to me any way, and I'm gona have to agree with Stic, the ones that went to jail, did there own hard time, the ones that went to Canada, didn't deserve the amnesty they got. I think the going to Canada and getting amnesty is why there are over 200 in Canada right now from the Iraq war. If when they deserted in the VN war they would have been executed then there would be none there now.
Looking back on my time in the Army, If I had it to do again, Id join the Air Force.
Ron