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U.S. Military Desertion Rate Drops
At least 8,000 members of the U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began in 2003 – but the overall desertion rate has dropped sharply following the 9/11 attacks, Pentagon records show. Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted from the all-volunteer military. There are no figures from the beginning of the war in March 2003 until the end of the fiscal year that fall. The Marine Corps, which doesn’t track the number of desertions each year, listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status when the 2005 fiscal year ended last September, a Marine Corps spokesman told USA Today.
Story Continues Below The Army, Navy and Air Force reported 7,978 desertions in 2001, the year of the Sept. 11 attacks, but only 3,456 in 2005. The Marine Corps also showed a drop in desertion numbers last year compared to 2001. Desertions in 2005 represented less than a quarter (.24) of one percent of the 1.4 million American forces. During the Vietnam era, 3.4 percent of Army personnel deserted. Most desertions since the Iraq war began have taken place in the U.S., Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins told USA Today, while there is only one known case of desertion in Iraq. Most deserters return within months, on their own, and few are court-martialed.
Editor's note:
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