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.
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POTUS
It will all be changed, and none of it for the better.
The active military is about the only branch of government I’d still trust enough to work for. I’ve thought about the civvie branches, and even looked into it, but these days I don’t know that I could live with myself if I worked for them.
Far be it from me to try to influence you, but do remember that several civilian agencies’ mission is primarily troop/mission support. Also maybe something like USO would be good for you? I don’t know your job skills, personality, preferences, etc. but there ARE decent jobs out there, even with the govt, if you look hard enough (and are desperate enough!)
Went I was in 30 days was AWOL, 31 days was desertion.
Unfortunately, my area is IT security, at more or less the GS-14 level, so I’m kind of stuck as to which agencies I can get work in without radically changing my career path.
I’m with you on that one.
Yea me too. And a lot of guys were doing it. I saw the ships daily muster reports for AWOL/UA and ones who were later declared a deserter. It surprised me even more though after I got out at the end of my enlistment and ran into guys at home I knew had joined the service and walked off. Most places I had worked had at least one such person.
I will never forget morning formations in Camp Lejune in 1970. The old salts coming home from nam were really something else. Half of them were UA and the other half didn’t give a damn about anything. The USMC was discharging them as fast as it could. I can’t blame the nam vets, they did their duty and all they wanted was to go home.
If you negatively eval a female peer, that will be negatively considered as part of YOUR evaluation.
I would not hold that against anyone who went to Nam and done that and were back in CONUS doing last few months. They did their time they fought the fight asked of them.
These were guys who were not drafted, were not in a war, volunteered of their own free will to do a four year or 4/2 enlistment, and weren't going to do the time they themselves had promised. Uncle didn't mess them over these guys messed themselves over.
Neither did the USMC, the short timer nam vets never got written up for missing formation (UA). Now if I missed a formation I was in trouble. Short timer combat vets got a lot of slack, a PFC just out of boot camp/MOS school got zero slack.
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