Stuck, need good advice

[StuckInARut17]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? pa

Well I'm stuck in a rut, here it goes....
I am in the USAR for over 3 yrs now and have not been to drill or have had contact with my unit for over a year now. They have been sending cert. letters that have not been accepted but for just one that had my number of UAs at 40 or so but was scratched out and a 6 was written in. "new year i guess"
Now the reason for ignoring my duties is because my medical wellness was being pushed off. I have been diagnosis with a rare shoulder problem that no doctors know to much about, I went through one surgery that had little sucess and then went back to the way it was. I did all of the needed paperwork to request a medical board and discharge "doctors letter, legal army forms and such" and they just gave me a 2 week profile. They know of my problem because i was kicked back from 2 seperate SRPs for this same reason. So i was just sitting there for acouple more drills and they did not seem to care about my personal wellfair so I just stopped going because I was getting nowhere with them and believe me I tried and was pushed aside and told I was fine. Now i need to get this over with and do not know where to start. If i go back to them they will just toss me back in the mix and nothing will happen.
Questions: can i get a lawyer and have my paperwork resubmitted? can i just let it go and be discharged for being a UA "which I think they should have done already"? Any information is greatly welcomed and please no "suck it up and drive on" replys ok!
THANX!!

[opus05]

Were you able to get your shoulder fixed after you decided to blow off your duties?

[acmb05]

turn yourself in and take the less than honorable discharge. If you have worked while you were not going to your exercises they will not give you a medical discharge.

Don't wait until you get pulled over one nite and get arrested because you will eventually.

[StuckInARut17]

No I wasn't! After 6 months of PT and pain pills while doing nothing during drills lead me to give up. They will only give you so many cortizone "sp?" shots before they tell you to go see someone else and I saw 4 different docs and they all had the same thing to say. "Sorry I don't know what else to do for you" So here I am dealing with this chronic shoulder pain and crepitance under both of my scapulas. Trust me, blowing off my job was not something I am proud of but their system sucks when it come down to it.

[StuckInARut17]

acmb05,
Who would I Turn myself in to? My unit? Do you know what the procedure is??

[acmb05]

You are now labeled a deserter not just awol. They will not give you a medical now. The best you could probably hope for is a general under less than honorable conditions. You should have gotten a lawyer before you stopped going and tried it that way.

One of my jobs in the Army was to locate and pick up AWOL and deserters. Trust me you do not want to wait for them to come to you. If they arrest you you will spend the nite in the jail then be transported to Ft Levinworth for out processing. This will take a week to do. You will also be required to pay back any bonus you received when you enlisted, plus any equipment you had issued to you if you cannot produce them when you are caught.

Being led thru the local Airport in handcuffs with an armed military escort is probably something you want to avoid. I would think it would be embarassing.

[acmb05]

You can call your unit and ask them what the procedur is for you. They may just say come on in and they can do everything from there.

Lets say that you dont do that and one day you are say in California on vacation and you get pulled over. Then you will be screwed because it will be off to jail for you.

Contact a lawyer before turning yourself in. The Army is natorious for lieing about what will happen to you when you call them. Have an attorney make the call.

[acmb05]

I hope it all works out for you.