Posted on 04/30/2013 6:55:48 PM PDT by markomalley
An Army private believed to be the first female U.S. soldier to seek refuge in Canada rather than return to duty in Iraq was sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to desertion, military officials in Colorado said on Tuesday.
Kimberly Rivera, who said she grew opposed to the war during a three-month tour of duty in Iraq, pleaded guilty at a court-martial proceeding in Fort Carson, Colorado, on Monday and was sentenced immediately.
In addition to the prison time, the 30-year-old private was reduced in rank, ordered to forfeit pay and benefits and received a bad conduct discharge, base spokeswoman Meghan Williams said.
Rivera fled to Toronto in 2007 while on leave after serving in Iraq with Fort Carson's 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad, according to her lawyer, James Branum.
She surrendered to authorities at the U.S. border in upstate New York last September after a Canadian court ordered her deported to the United States, capping several years spent by Rivera unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Canada.
Branum said Rivera was the first and, as far as he knows, the only female U.S. military deserter to flee to Canada during the Iraq war. The advocacy group War Resisters Support Campaign has said Rivera was the first U.S. female soldier to seek asylum in Canada to avoid redeployment to Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
10 USC § 885 - Art. 85. Desertion
(a) Any member of the armed forces who—
(1) without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;(2) quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service; or(3) without being regularly separated from one of the armed forces enlists or accepts an appointment in the same or another one of the armed forces without fully disclosing the fact that he has not been regularly separated, or enters any foreign armed service except when authorized by the United States;
is guilty of desertion.(b) Any commissioned officer of the armed forces who, after tender of his resignation and before notice of its acceptance, quits his post or proper duties without leave and with intent to remain away therefrom permanently is guilty of desertion.(c) Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct.
this is Obamaland.
Desertion is what you get after your dinner with your EBT card.
But she’s female! She DESERVES better treatment.
/sarc
The liberals love people like this. I’m surprised she got 10 months.
No, no. Shoulda been hanged. There's a critical difference in the meaning of the two words.
She just reserved a tenured faculty position for herself.
A BCD is absolutely the worse you can ever receive from the military. It’s worse than being hanged. You’re basically the living dead. No benefits whatsoever from the government. Best hope she has is to get married and be supported that way. She’ll never ever be able to hold/have a job.
Oh hell, this administration will hire her when she gets out.
Remember back in the day when desertion was punishable by death? Ah......those were the days
Didn’t you hear Women and Gays are now the Army. Straight American males are no longer
Qualifications and training requirement for Army Rangers have just been lowered. This is only the beginning.
Hah, 10 months? I know guys that did longer in the brig for a lot less.
Didn’t you hear Women and Gays are now the Army. Straight American males are no longer
Qualifications and training requirement for Army Rangers have just been lowered. This is only the beginning.
Hah, 10 months? I know guys that did longer in the brig for a lot less.
a year of milking cows at Lompoc or busting rocks at Leavenworth would be a good start...
big chicken dinner.
seems about right.
The BCD is only bad if it is checked as a condition for employment or whatever. I believe those days are long gone.
I was thinking anything to do with defense work. Any government work. She’ll be relegated to some minimum wage job. But then, like Carter, she’ll have her BCD changed by Obama.
That will leave a mark...
where'd you read that?
I’m not too keyed in on rank but it seems that someone 30 years old who was only a private didn’t have much future anywhere.
Doubt it. She’s probably already got a job offer waiting at MSNBC.
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