An Open Letter To A Deserter

[NATO AIR]

I think this advice is very good and can only hope FC2 Paredes takes it.

http://www.indepundit.com/archive2/2004/12/an_open_letter.html

An Open Letter to Pablo ParedesPablo,

I hope you don’t mind if I dispense with the military BS and address you informally. After all, you just took off your uniform and refused to go on deployment, so I doubt that military courtesy would make much of an impression on you.

You’ve just made a very critical decision, possibly the most important one of your young life. You decided to abandon a commitment that you made four and a half years ago by refusing to go on a six-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf on the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard. In doing so, you claim that you’re taking a stand against a war you believe to be unjustified. I’m sure that making such a statement makes you feel like a man.

OK then, let’s talk – man to man.

In the big scheme of things, your action will have no impact on the war. The Bonhomme Richard sailed out of San Diego on Monday, along with her entire battle group. Your attempted desertion may have caused a media stir, but you did not delay the battle group’s departure by so much as a minute. The embarked Marines are on their way to the Sandbox, to perform the mission that they were trained to do.

You did, however, manage to fuck up your own future. As I’m sure you’re aware, the Navy isn’t just going to let you go easily. They’re going to put you on trial for desertion. You will probably end up spending a year or longer in military prison, doing hard labor. And how do you think your fellow prisoners will respond to you? Do you think they’ll respect your decision to shirk your duty? Of course, you will also be reduced in rank to E-1, forfeit all of your pay, be dishonorably discharged, and lose eligibility for the GI bill and any veteran’s benefits you might have otherwise claimed.

To your credit, you’ve stood up before the cameras and said that you are prepared to accept the consequences for your actions. We’ll see about that.

Did your new friends at Veterans for Peace and the (deceptively named) San Diego Military Counseling Project tell you the rest of the story? Did they mention that even after you are released from the brig, you would have a permanent federal criminal record as a convicted felon? How do you think that will look when you try to apply for work? What employer would want to hire someone who refuses to honor his commitments? You also told the reporters that your wife is behind you “1,000 percent.” How long do you think she will stick around, when you can’t get a decent job?

A man’s word is his bond, Pedro – and yours just dropped to junk status.

And for what? We still haven’t heard what this dramatic statement is that you are trying to make. “War is bad?” I’m a veteran – tell me something I didn’t already know. Enlighten the rest of us: what is so gawdawful important, that it’s worth screwing up your life like this?

But let’s put your personal considerations aside for the moment. After all, a martyr cares nothing for his own life. That is how you see yourself, isn’t it?

When you were planning your dramatic “statement,” did you think for a minute about how this would affect your shipmates? You are a fire control technician on the Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile system. The Navy doesn’t have a bunch of spare FCs sitting in cold storage. Your ship is going to the Arabian Gulf, and will have to pass through the “threat arcs” of Iran’s Silkworm anti-ship missiles – and in case you haven’t noticed, we’re not exactly buddy-buddy with the mullahs these days. The Sea Sparrow is a critical point-defense system for your ship. So your job isn’t one that the Navy can afford to shrug off – somebody else is going to have to do it.

One of two things is going to happen. Either your shipmates are going to have to pull extra shifts to cover for your absence, or – more likely – somebody from another ship is going to get emergency orders to take your place in the coming days. Maybe that person is married; maybe he even has kids.

And you pulled this little stunt just in time for Christmas.

No man is an island, Pedro. Your actions will have consequences far beyond what you intended. Did you think about that? Is all of this really worth screwing over your fellow sailors? Are you really so self-absorbed? What part of "One Team, One Fight" did you not understand?

The best that you can hope to achieve by continuing along the course you have chosen is for your life to become a cautionary tale – a warning to others to avoid the siren call of blind self-righteousness.

But it’s not too late for you to end this nightmare.

Kick your new buddies out of the apartment. Shave your stubble. Put your uniform back on. Grab your ID out of the sock drawer. Call the duty officer. Turn yourself in. Take your lumps at Captain’s mast. Serve out the rest of your enlistment. After that, you can protest the war to your heart’s content, with a clear conscience.

A real man keeps his commitments, Pedro.

Be a man and do your duty.

Regards,
SMASH