US military now turning its back on deserters

By Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times, 5/27/2003

Soldiers are usually classified as deserters when they have been absent without leave for 30 days and show no intention of returning. Last year 3,800 Army soldiers deserted, meaning that the Army's desertion rate was one-sixth of what it was during the Vietnam War, when it totaled 5 percent of the rolls.