WASHINGTON - The weight of the war has proven to be too heavy for a growing number of soldiers. Faced with difficult and repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, deployments that stretch for 15 months and signs of lingering stress disorders, more soldiers are finding a way out: desertion.
MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) -- A few weeds have popped up on the fairways, and summer's heat has scorched the grass here and there, but the golf course at the Hampshire Country Club is still tidy and scenic, its little waterfall still burbling through the rocks. Not that there's anyone around to notice. The Hampshire's 18- hole course on Long Island Sound, along with its tennis courts, pool and restaurant, is closed this year. Members cited rising costs upward of $25,000 a year for a membership as the roster fell from several hundred at its peak to about 100.
A regimental band played the "Dead March." The entire division, including the famous Stonewall Brigade, formed three sides around the convicted men. A chaplain knelt quietly with the victims and uttered prayers for their souls. Then a sergeant gave the order; the men were shot dead and fell into their own graves. Their crime: desertion. They had attempted to go home without permission. Although the above event transpired early in the war on the Confederate side (1862), the problem of desertion was pervasive on both sides throughout the war. Variously referred to as "French furlough," "French leave" or "extended sick leave," desertion became the bane of every loyal officer.
PERRY TWP., Montgomery County -- A 25-year-old woman is being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a federal warrant for military desertion. Amber McGuire, a service member in the United States Army, was arrested on the warrant shortly after 7 p.m. Nov. 24, during a traffic stop in the 300 block of Diamond Mill Road, according to Perry Twp. Police Lt. Mike Rinehart.
TOKYO -- Gripping a cane and looking haggard, an American accused of deserting the U.S. Army and defecting to North Korea was hospitalized immediately after he arrived in Japan on Sunday, putting himself within the reach of U.S. authorities for the first time in 39 years. Charles Jenkins, who vanished from his platoon in 1965 and later played devilish American characters in communist propaganda films, faced possible U.S. military prosecution on desertion and other charges in Japan, although American officials have suggested they will delay taking him into custody.
An anonymous Daily Facts writer deserves the credit for this week's bit of Redlands history. The following is his story of "a strange case of child desertion in Redlands" from Saturday, Dec. 3, 1904. I came across it as I was looking through the November 1904 to April 1905 volume of the Daily Facts - where I found the March 1905 story of Mary Kimberly Shirk's wedding - before putting it back on its shelf in the Daily Facts morgue.
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