A total of 3,196 active-duty soldiers deserted the Army last year, or 853 more than previously reported, according to revised figures from the Army.

The new calculations by the Army, which had about 500,000 active-duty troops at the end of 2006, significantly alter the annual desertion totals since the 2000 fiscal year.

In 2005, for example, the Army now says 2,543 soldiers deserted, not the 2,011 it had reported. For some earlier years, the desertion numbers were revised downward.

National Public Radio first reported on Tuesday that the Army had been inaccurately reporting desertion figures.

A soldier is considered a deserter if he leaves his post without permission, quits his unit or fails to report for duty with the intent of staying away permanently. Soldiers who are absent without leave — or AWOL, a designation that assumes a soldier still intends to return to duty — are automatically classified as deserters and are dropped from a unit’s rolls if they remain away for more than 30 days.

Some Army officers link the recent uptick in annual desertion rates to the toll of wartime deployments and point to the increasing percentage of troops who are on their second or third tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.

(2007-03-23) — The Pentagon today admitted that, due to the Bush administration’s hugely unpopular war in Iraq, desertions from the Army have increased in each of the last two years, reaching almost 75 percent of pre-war levels.

According to a story in The New York Times, citing a National Public Radio report, the Pentagon has miscalculated desertion figures in recent years, in part because the Defense Department inexplicably misplaced personnel records during what officials called an “isolated incident at the office” on September 11, 2001.

With demoralized soldiers bolting the service at rates approaching the peace-time average — and almost 30 percent of the Vietnam war era average — Pentagon officials failed to offer a plan to halt what one reporter called “an exodus of Biblical proportions”.

quote:

“It is just unbelievable to the G.A.O. to hear that the Army does not know what that number is,” Mr. Stewart said in an interview Thursday.
Noting that the problem with the desertion numbers arises when the service cannot find enough recruits to fill certain crucial specialties like medical experts and bomb defusers Mr. Stewart said, “In the context of their current recruiting problems for certain occupations, these desertion numbers are huge.”

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

I might disagree with part of what she stated, I dont see the numbers as huge, now if they were all medics-----------


Yeah.

Ron

quote:

ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

Well KY is the one that posted the article that states the numbers are huge..smiles

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity

You think that, if the numbers are approaching the peace-time average, it's a huge victory for your side?

O-kayyy

quote:

ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

Well KY is the one that posted the article that states the numbers are huge..smiles

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

Strom Thurman
Jessie Helms
Dick Cheney
Geo Bush


Dammit!!!!! can't do 'er?  It's on the tip of my tongue tho..........

quote:

ORIGINAL: domiguy

First off the libs are the kings of irony and humor....Name 5 conservative comedians...lol.

You make the original post because you think it backs your "cause"...Remember there is no draft...Everyone volunteered..I would expect there to be a very small amount of people who wouldn't stick with what they agreed upon.

March 27, 2007: U.S. Army bureaucrats screwed up some statistics again. This time it was the desertion rate. No big deal. The army had 3,196 troops desert in 2006, 2,543 in 2005, and 2,357 in 2004. The desertion rate hit a peak in 2002, with 4,483 walking away. The army began to screen more carefully for adaptation problems, and has cut their number of deserters nearly in half. Desertion is the largest cause of losses in the military, larger than combat, and non-combat, deaths and serious (resulting in medical discharge) injuries.)

The counting error, attributed to mistakes made by several clerks and supervisors, did not change the total number of deserters for the period  2000-2006. The  corrected number is 22,468, compared to 22,586 for the bad count. Most of the errors were deserters being listed in the wrong year.


...

Bad numbers are nothing new. For example, the Department of Defense used to report that the number of combat deaths in the Korean war were higher (by over 10,000 dead) than they actually were. This was because, early on, someone mistakenly added all the accidental deaths, world-wide, for the United States military, during the period of the war (1950-53), to the total combat dead. It wasn't until the 1980s that this got cleared up.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

LOL,

I will take Rush, for the daily double Alex.......

Coulter is just a garden variety quim.
Ron