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Show TAKING DRASTIC ACTION Tribune Jany 7 53 Army Admits 20,000 Desert Monthly WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (INS) The Army revealed Tuesday that soldiers have been over the hill at a rate of more than 20,000 a month and that drastic measures have been taken to cut down the number of desertions. The new procedure, ordered by the Defense Department in recent weeks, call for sentencing absent without leave offenders, escorting them under guard to overseas transports, and then remitting the balance of their sentences. Meanwhile they are kept in stockades pending departure for Korea or Europe. The sentences average three days in stockades for each day of unauthorized absence, with a maximum term of 60 days in cases where a soldier is AWOL for less than 30 days. A serviceman is listed as a deserter when he has been absent without leave for more than 30 days. A set of previously secret statistics showed that: 1. Since the start of the Korean war, 46,000 soldiers have deserted from the Army for more than 30 days. 2. Eleven thousand of these are at large, mainly in big cities, and are being sought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The others have either been captured or have turned themselves in. 3. Since mid 1951, short term absent without leave cases have been running over 20,000 a month. The unauthorized leaves have averaged about 10 days, with 6,000 absentees on the books at any given time. The Army statements were issued in response to an article in the Louisville (Ky.) Times which said desertions have reached alarming proportions and threaten a national disgrace. Lt. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, Army chief of personnel, told a news conference that the absentee situation is no worse than it was in World War II and he does not consider it alarming. The Air Force said it had 5,528 absentees on Oct. 31, with 851 of them classified as deserters. The Marine Corps listed 1,377 AWOLs and 697 deserters on the same date. The Navy listed 1,242 deserters on Dec. 31, and did not give the number of short term absentees. Todays Chuckle With the intention of diverting his sons attention from wild west television entertainment, a father bought him a book about Abraham Lincoln. A few evenings later, the father asked his son what he had learned about Mr. Lincoln. He was shot in a show, the boy replied. General Features Corporation |
