I Joined The Navy To See The World, Not Get Shot

Going "over the hill" still seems to be a problem, even if the Commander-in-Chief gets his orders directly from God:

"WASHINGTON — At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although the overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001... Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted. The Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005, says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman."

By Bill Nichols
USA TODAY

I can understand the 82 USAF desertions, those 82 most likely being the offspring of politicians who needed an adequate service record for their future politicial careers, but decided to give up politics rather than a leg or two.

3,454 seems an inordinate number of sailors bailing out, considering sailors are usually out on ships and miles from any sort of action or danger from things like the IED's.

Perhaps the dire shortage of Army troops has forced the powers that be to take sailors off the ships and put them in the front lines.

Being an ex-sailor, I know that sailors are not trained for ground combat. In boot camp, we marched, did a few pushups, scrubbed clothes, shot a .22 rifle and then an M1 carbine for a few minutes at a target range, put out a couple of staged fires, and watched lots of films on venerial disease (STD's to you moderns) and naval history.

With that sort of preparation for a ground war, I can see perhaps why a high percentage of AWOL's are navy folks.