496
An Anonymous DC National Guardsman Tells All - “This is not what I signed up to do.”
(washingtonian.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
496 points (99.2% liked)
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I knew someone who defected from the military. Wasn't supposed to do that. Broke his contract. He's still alive and he owns a house and he's got a wife and kids and a good job.
Yeah, that’s because it’s more like having a felony when you are dishonorably discharged, but who knows given the context of your story what happened. Was he enlisted or an officer? Which branch was he in?
Like different things could happen depending on the situation:
United States > Military > Army > Active Duty Army United States > Military > Air Force > Air Force National Guard
These are both the military and being defective would be awol. Sure they are all under the UCMJ legal system, but that can be applied differently in each case.
There are different types of discharges from the military a depends on how that army unit wants to report that particular solider.
It’s just more of spectrum of thins that can happen.
Defected? Like went to a different country?
I'm assuming they meant AWOL (absent without leave).
Yes, that's the term. He went AWOL.
That sort of thing goes on your record though. You don't simply leave the service without the government knowing. They will literally put a warrant out for your arrest
Okay well this happened like 40 years ago , and he got a good job and house and wife and kids starting 35 years ago, so he's apparently unscathed by his AWOL shenanigans. He ran away in the middle of basic training. He couldn't hang with it. Apparently they let it slide.
I think statute of limitations on most of the common ucmj articles maxes out at 5 years? It's been a while, but short version is a cousin of a friend went awol and basically hid on a shrimping boat for years until they couldn't come after him anymore. Not easy for sure.
Wait a minute, wasn't that a scene from Forrest Gump? 🍤
I don’t think anyone went AWOL in forest gump