I have always held the opinion that if these young men and women that no longer wish to be a part of the Branch of the US Military in which they themselves "freely" volunteered knowing that the mission of the US Military is the defense of this nation and everything else is secondary to that. If a young person joins the Military and on the pretext that they are there for an education or future college degree, then they lack an understanding of their own jobs and the meaning of the word benefit. It has always been my opinion that these people that go UA or AWOL and then turn up in the media to protest the mission that their fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are risking their very lives and are in fact a detriment to those units and effect fighting effectiveness, and unit cohesion, not to mention the moral of their counterparts. these people are in fact "cowards" of the lowest form, letting others fight in their stead and in some cases die or get wounded in their place. These people do not belong in the US Military and I have always held the opinion that someone of this nature should recieve a Dishonorable Discharge and be immediatly released from the US military. These so called cities that want to offer safe havens for these people that go UA or AWOL based on their beliefs is laughable as these individuals are in fact in violation of the UCMJ which civilian authority has ZERO jusridiction over. On a personal note though, it would be much simplier to just go to BUPERS and Dishonorably Discharge these individuals and force them to return to the US Military to try to change that status and trust me when these young people get a little older that is exactly what they will do.
