by Bill Galvin

Increasing numbers of people in the military have had enough. Many feel they made a mistake by joining and are ready to quit. The Pentagon is now estimating that as many as 40,000 troops have deserted the US Armed Forces over the past six years. Many have refused to fight in Iraq. The GI Rights Hotline receives nearly 100 calls daily from servicemembers who want out. The Hotline is a toll-free number which provides information to members of the military about discharges, grievance and complaint procedures, and other civil rights.

Every day the organizations staffing the Hotline talk with people who are either absent without leave (AWOL) or on an unauthorized absence (UA), both of which are military crimes.

In most cases those who are AWOL will not be handcuffed and hauled off to jail. Relatively few are prosecuted, and most who are convicted get less than 6 months in jail. (The maximum penalty for AWOL is one-and-a-half years in jail). The vast majority of people who go AWOL are punished administratively, and often they get discharged. Those who are discharged usually get an administrative discharge called an Other Than Honorable discharge.
The large number of people who go AWOL (over 200 a day according to the General Accounting Office) or who do not finish their first term of enlistment (over a third of those who enlist) reflects the high level of abuse and fraud among military recruiters. Many Hotline callers have either realized that they were misled or have had such a horrendous experience that they just want out.

A documented failure to meet the military standards (physical, mental, or ‘moral’) is grounds for discharge [see box below ]. Recruiters often cover up medical problems, most commonly a history of depression, asthma, or a sports injury. The physical stress of training often exacerbates these problems that were under control before enlistment. Often these recruits are threatened with disciplinary action for fraudulent enlistment (which carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail) even though they told the truth to the recruiter. Recruiters have also falsified high school diplomas or covered up a history of drug use. After the threats of punishment, these people are usually processed out with an entry level separation (ELS). Sometimes they get an Other Than Honorable discharge as a punishment even though the recruiter is at fault.

Other ways out of the military include:

But as the military has an increasingly difficult time getting new recruits, they do not always follow their own regulations. The actual treatment of people seeking discharge varies depending on the command. The military reflects society in that there are decent and conscientious people trying to do an honorable job as they understand it. There are also some real jerks, and everything in between. So some commands will assist folks who obviously should be discharged. Others throw up roadblocks and obstacles, assuming that since you made an eight-year commitment to the military, you're going to stay in for at least 8 years!

We at the Center on Conscience & War like to say we're stopping war one soldier at a time. Maybe it's slow, but it's very important–look at how many people who are long term activists working for peace are veterans. For many of today's soldiers, the person they reach when they call the Hotline is their first connection with the movement for justice and peace. The fact that we listen and help can make all the difference in their lives.
Often we have to deal with the fact that we're just a voice on the phone to them, and they are dealing directly with people wearing a uniform who often have legal control over them. We're often saying, “your commanding officer (or your recruiter) probably doesn't want you to know this, but this is what the regulations say (or what the law says.)” The only thing we have to convince them that they should listen to us is our integrity, and encouraging them to think about who might have ulterior motives for giving them misinformation.

We enable those who have been conned, abused and brutalized by the military system to stand up for themselves, and begin to take control of their lives. And that empowerment, at its heart, is how we're going to change this world.

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Bill Galvin is the Counseling Coordinator at the Center on Conscience & War, one of 12 groups that make up the GI Rights Hotline. For more information, contact the GI Rights Hotline, 405 14th Street, #205, Oakland, CA 94612; girights@objector.org; www.girights.org; (800) 394-9544.

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by Bill Galvin

The military has five different characterizations of discharge as well as uncharacterized Entry Level Separation (ELS). Starting with the best, they are Honorable, General (under honorable conditions), Other Than Honorable, Bad Conduct, and Dishonorable. The last two can only be given as part of the sentence when someone is convicted in a military court-they reflect a criminal conviction and carry the usual consequences of being convicted.

The commanding officer has a lot of discretion in deciding which of these to give based on the soldier's service record. While discharge status relates primarily to VA benefits (anything that is not fully Honorable results in the loss of benefits), a discharge that is not fully honorable may be an obstacle in finding a job. Over time, and with a good civilian work record, the effects of the General or Other Than Honorable in the civilian job market can be minimized. The ELS simply means that for whatever reason, the military decided this was not a good match. In theory it is not punitive or negative, but it may cause potential employers to wonder what went wrong. This too, can be minimized with time.