Are there examples of senior NCOs, maybe even officers, in recent history who deserted or went AWOL? Would this be an extremely rare occurrence?
Note: this is not about soldiers who defect to the enemy or switch their affiliation after being taking POW, but rather about individuals who leave the service without permission for personal reasons or because they want to avoid combat. In other words: a “typical deserter”, but not just a mere private, but a sergeant, a lieutenant or maybe even a captain.
This could indeed be one of the cases I’m looking for: a significant numbers of Soviet soldiers who were stationed in East Germany ran away after the East German regime broke down in the early 90s and after German unification, but these were (if I recall correctly) mainly enlisted men.
Not a soldier, but other than that, there was probably a significant number of German officers in 1945 who would qualify (although it would often remain unclear whether they just went home after the war had ended and there was no authority to formally discharge them).
The brother-in-law of Hitler’s wife Eva Braun, Hermann Fegelein, was a SS-General who shot as a deserter in 1945.
Yes, but these individuals couldn’t really be described as deserters. They were trying to avoid prosecution by their (former) enemy after the German surrender.
What about Rudolf Hess? I suppose “soldier” is sort of arguable with the somewhat muddled relationship between the Nazi government and military as is “deserter” given his bizarre motives. He was however very high ranking (probably second only to Hitler and Goering at the time) and definitely left his post without permission.
Benedict Arnold was a Major General when he fled his command and went over to the British. Not sure if actually joining the other side in a war counts as “desertion” though.
While stationed at Ft. Riley Ks in 1973-74 and living in on post NCO quarters (Camp Forsyth) an old duffer showed up with corporal strips.
It took a while for him to open up, but what had happened was,
After 2 tours in Vietnam and very close to retirement he was sent back and from his word, there were some trouble spots and that was where he was sent.
Getting tipped off that there was a conspiracy to kill him he went AWOL from Vietnam, returned to his home town of corpus Christi TX. and took a job driving truck.
Somewhere about 3 years went by and the FBI visited him and arrested him for Desertion. He asked them to just let him go and the Army could have his 20 years.
I Separated before his Court Marshall, but i also took him into town every afternoon for his Jim Beam.
I have certainly wondered about the outcome over the years.
He was a Sergent 1st Class when he left Vietnam.
They always exist for each war. Any ways, I remember on CNN two counts of this: one was while troops were about to be deployed and they were loading onto an aircraft and a guy just sat down on the tarmac, probably not even an NCO. Another was a SNCO who was on CNN who came back for his yearly leave and refused to go back as he objected to the war.
While I was in the Navy, and my ship was an LHD that ferried Marines, there were a few that refused to go ashore. Considering that the MEU was 1600 people this is a relatively insignificant amount percentage wise but can be a huge amount moral wise. They were sent back and no more did that.
How about famous birther army doctor Lt. Col Terry Lakin, who refused to deploy to Afghanistan. He was convicted of desertion (under the fancier name of “missing movement.”)
I don’t know if you’ll take this. Field Marshall Friedrich Paulussort of, as he also fits a defector. As in he surrendered, was imprisoned by the Soviets, and then became big into East Germany.
He fits because he didn’t just surrender, but disobeyed an order from Hitler to die fighting or kill himself (famous (mis)quote: “I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bohemian corporal,” mocking Hitler’s military service). And ordered his men to disobey orders. He had no way of knowing what would happen next and weren’t there a lot of horror stories about surrendering to the Soviets? So not exactly expecting to side with the winner.
Wendell Fertig, a Civil Engineer and Lt Col in the US Army Reserve, disobeyed General Wainwright’s order for all American servicemen under his command to surrender to Japanese forces. He deserted and made his way to Mindanao where he declared himself to be the Commanding General of the United States Forces In The Philippines and raised a force of other American deserters and mostly Philippine nationals to carry out guerrilla operations against Japanese forces. A Filipino high school student who had joined Fertig’s forces managed to build a shortwave radio out of a motion picture projector and they were able to contact US Forces in Hawaii. MacArthur didn’t want much to do with them because he had declared there were no guerrilla forces remaining in the Philippines, but other US military interests were in contact with USFIP and were able to supply them via submarine and order MacArthur to support Fertig. Eventually, MacArthur promoted Fertig to Colonel and awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross. The numbers vary, but it seems most likely he had 36,000 men under his command, and arms for 1,600 of them. At times, the USFIP controlled 95% of Mindanao and when MacArthur’s forces finally landed to liberate Mindanao from the Japanese, they were greeted by a band made up of members of the USFIP.
After the war, Fertig was Commander of the ROTC detachment at the Colorado School of Mines. He returned to active duty to the Psychological Warfare department during the Korean War. After he retired, his was a welcome face at the US Army Special Warfare School and is considered one of the founding fathers of the United States Army Special Forces.
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