Fayetteville, NC, Former city resident deemed AWOL

[G_j]

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/02/20/news/local/news03.txt

Former city resident deemed AWOL


FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — An 82nd Airborne Division soldier who grew up in Rapid City says he had "a romantic vision" of military life and has left his post to seek refuge in Canada as a conscientious objector.

Jeremy Hinzman, a member of the 2nd Battalion of the 504th Brigade Parachute Infantry Regiment, could be prosecuted as a deserter if he is caught inside the United States.

He will be listed on a national database and could be arrested, but the Army won't go looking for him, said Sgt. Pam Smith, a spokeswoman for the 82nd Airborne, based at Fort Bragg.

"We don't have time to go and track down people who go AWOL," she said. "We're fighting a war."

Hinzman joined the Army in January 2001. He and his wife and baby fled last month to Toronto.

<snip>
"It seemed like a good financial decision," he said, "I had a romantic vision of what the Army was."

But he was horrified from the start of basic training, by the chanting about blood and killing during marches, by the shooting at targets without faces and by what he called the dehumanization of the enemy.


..more..

[supernova]

1. Local news from last night

This story was reported on Channel 5 here in NC last night:

http://www.wral.com/news/2858242/detail.html

The response was basically they don't have time to go chasing after him at this point, so for a while, he's relatively safe.

[jmowreader]

2. This guy isn't ours

He is an 82nd Airborne paratrooper who grew up in Rapid City, SD. The title of this thread makes it sound like he was born and raised here in Fayettenam.

He's also a lazy little prick. He says he couldn't find a place to practice Buddhism. I found a Buddhist temple less than 30 minutes from here in less than one minute with a search engine. You are not going to tell me no chaplain on Fort Bragg knows about this place.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

3. Check out the fayettenam observer poll. I almost fell off my chair.

http://www.fayettevillenc.com/


The question:
Do you believe Saddam Hussein had 'weapons of mass destruction' prior to the war?

When I voted. the results were:

Yes
1300

No
2219