| PP Awol Returnee
What is the name of your state? CALIFORNIA
So, I really never found any stories on the net (besides majorly publicized ones) about guys that went awol from he Army that had graduated both basic and AIT. Anyways, since everything is all done with, I thought I would post my my fiance's- and hopefully help or give some insight into what he went through and what might happen.
My fiance went awol from the Army in October of 2006. He had graduated both basic, AIT, and airborne school/training and had been in his permanent unit for eh, 3 months or so. He decided to go awol for multiple reasons, mainly psychological/mental issues along with a lot of illegal things that were going on. I guess a lot of his sergeants are in the brig now =) He tried to get help for these, even contacted the Chaplin, but was denied help and then harassed because of his problems. We called GI Rights before he made the decision to go AWOL to see what our options and consequences were. Decided it was the right thing to do, and left.
On the drive over to California we were extremely paranoid and really had no reason to be, because when he got pulled over while driving, they ran his ID and everything, they just let us go. Also, after we were in California we had a issue where the cops came out, he had been AWOL 3 months, so he figured he would be arrested and told them he was AWOL. They told him they didn't care and left. Apparently, until a Federal Warrant is issued, nothing shows up in their system. His wasn't issued until the end of February. Before he turned himself in we worked with a couple resources and an attorney that took our case pro bono.
In July my fiance' had no option but to turn himself in before he got arrested because he was put on Most Wanted and on the news. He wanted to turn himself in to Ft. Sill, but he wasn't PCF eligible because he had been in for too long. So in August he arranged to turn himself into where his unit was.
When he got there, things were pretty rough. He got called a California tree-hugging fag, denied many meals, etc. But after awhile they started treating him decent. He was told they out processed guys every 4-6 weeks. He was with a bunch of other guys in his situation. But it was a stressful situation because people kept stealing, doing drugs, getting in trouble, etc. While there he received 45 days extra duty and worked 7 days a week from 6am-11pm or midnight w. only 1/3 pay. He only had to do PT once. He was given freedom to use his cell phone, the internet, etc. He could go anywhere (after extra duty was done) as long as he checked in at certain times. They even allowed him to come back to California when they found out I went into labor- and when they found out there was complications they even extended his leave. Sounds a lot better then what the guys are allowed to do in PCF.
To be discharged he had to have a physical, see a psychologist multiple times, go through financial counseling, watch some education videos on returning to civilian life, and a bunch of other minor things.
Today he was finally discharged with an OTH under a Chapter 14-12c (not the best, but we don't care). It took a lot longer than planned because a certain general there was trying to give several guys a year at Camp Lijun. They denied his papers twice. He does not have to pay them back for his gear and clothing that got stolen from his room after he left. He will be getting paid for the leave days he never used (we don't get this one but hey lol), etc. However, he does have to pay back his bonus and had to pay his STAR card balance before they would let him leave. If he would have taken the bus instead of plane to turn himself in, they also would have paid him back for that.
They also didn't care about all his medical problems prior to joining. They said they save medical discharges for the guys that got problems from going overseas (understandable).Therefore, they found him to be psychologically/mentally perfect.
He will be home Sunday. Any questions feel free to ask. | 
10-12-2007, 03:53 PM
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