awol need direction
Your BEST advice is advice from BADAPPLE. He is a military attorney and gives solid advice, no preaching. Beginning about 7 months ago, a formerly close friend went AWOL from Benning after completing AIT and recycling Airborne several times. BADAPPLE gave THE most accurate counsel of all. I did mountains of research independantly and made dozens of phone calls and can add very little to his bottom line.
--If everything goes according to SOP, a warrant will be issued for your arrest at approx. 31 days. No one will come looking for you. Simply, you will live your life looking over your shoulder because your SSN WILL EVENTUALLY pop hot on a routine traffic stop etc. To whit, there was a posting here about a man AWOL for many years who married, started a family, found employment AND then had a traffic stop. The poster was asking for advice for his friend, the former soldier, who was sitting in a county jail...waiting for military authorities to pick him up. This would be a less than desirable complication to explain to wife, employer, friends, family.
--If you turn yourself in prior to 30 days, the chances of minimizing the situation are much greater. "Our" soldier was at Benning and their JAG office records a wide scope of punishments for AWOL, generally with much harsher punishments for longer absences. A significant number of soldiers gone more than 30 days served in confinement. Please be advised, and BADAPPLE can clarify this, that WORST CASE ( and Benning DID have some worst case scenerios) if you are convicted in a certain type of Courts Martial proceeding, then it is a FELONY charge, which can mean revocation of your civil rights, like voting. That is a whole lot to give up....
--While it is TRUE that many AWOL soldiers recieve OTHER THAN HONORABLE discharges rather than DISHONORABLE ones, both are significant and who gets what seems to have an element of "the luck of the draw." Another point made by a regretful AWOL/OTH discharge was that when an employer finds out that you received something other than an honorable discharge, they lose interest. To most people, there really isn't a difference between OTHER than Honorable and DIShonorable. One blog I read recommended lieing about your discharge...all I can say is that the truth usually comes out and think about what your employer would think of a person who not only received a other than honorable discharge, but also was a liar.
So, please, as BADAPPLE has said, it is in your best interest to GO back immediately. The guy for which we were doing research turned himself in, way too late, got an OTH, has no access to any benefits, owes the military a bunch of money and has severely limited his future options. He is currently without higher education or access to the great ed. benefits of the military, no health or dental insurance, no marketable skills and, at 22 is pursuing a "career" as a busboy.
Besides all of the legal repurcussions, I have read MANY very moving accounts by people somewhat older than you ( I assume) who went AWOL and received OTH discharges in years gone by and say that the stigma haunts them daily......
Hope this helps.
