Comrade of fallen soldiers pleads guilty to desertion charges, to serve nine months

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Comrade of fallen soldiers pleads guilty to desertion charges, to serve nine months
By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, November 14, 2007

VICENZA, Italy — A soldier assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of desertion and failing to follow a lawful order.

In a general court-martial at Caserma Ederle, Judge (Col.) R. Peter Masterston sentenced Pfc. Andrew G. Hegerty to one year of confinement at the Army detention facility in Mannheim, Germany. Hegerty also was reduced in rank to E-1, ordered to forfeit of all pay and given a bad-conduct discharge. Because of a pretrial agreement, Hegerty will serve nine months behind bars.

The 19-year-old deployed to Afghanistan with his unit in May, but decided he didn’t want to return to his unit when his block leave ended on Sept. 23. He visited Fort McCoy, Wis., to try to separate from the Army two days later, but was told he would be returned to his unit.

“They said there was nothing they could do for me, so I left Fort McCoy, knowing that I was a deserter,” he told the judge.

Hegerty said he returned to his home in Wisconsin before deciding to turn himself in at Fort Knox, Ky., on Oct. 10.

Sent back to Vicenza, he refused an order from the top noncommissioned officer in his battalion’s rear detachment to attend a predeployment session. He told the judge that such a move would only lead to his going back to Afghanistan and “hazardous duty.”


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50249