What would make a soldier decide to go AWOL?

Answer 1

I know a lot of people will argue that it's because they don't want to go to war, but as a Military wife, I have known and heard about people going AWOL even when there is no war. I don't agree with it, but can almost understand someone doing it out of fear for going to war, but the people that do it at other times are simply not wanting to fulfill their comment, and sometimes they just decide they should get some time off! They might of met someone and they don't want to leave them, or they are having too much fun, and Military life is no longer for them. I have seen this happen over and over again, and I have never heard one logical excuse for it. One guy that I knew who went AWOL and finally came back after 29 days (That prevented him from being considered a deserter) said he did it because he met and married a fat girl, and he didn't want his shipmates to make fun of him for having a fat wife! Poor guy! I think he was truly concerned he would be made fun of! Lol!

Answer 2

I've had a troop go AWOL once actually. He did it because he didn't know any better and was facing serious administrative punishment. Other soldiers go AWOL because they don't want to deploy and/or want to get kick out of the military usually. And of course there are the mistaken AWOLs where someone wasn't where they we suppose to be at the appropriate time but it wasn't their fault.

Answer 3

Maybe, he/she just can't stand to be a witness to all the death around him/her. If you had to look at it day in and day out for, oh let's say 1 1/2 years, some less than that. Still others get hardened to it. Most, if they come home at all are mentally scarred by the horrors of war. Ask anyone who faught in Vietnam. Many had flashbacks for years. Still others never completely recovered.
If you haven't been there then you don't know, and can't understand what stresses and psychological strains the soldiers face everyday.
In all likelyhood, it's probably not the loss of the sense of reality, but the cold hard truth that prompted them to go AWOL.

Answer 4

Wow. So many answers to this one. Well, there is that fear of dying. There is also that fear of killing some innocent person; or, a child, for that mattter. His missing his family, like his parents or his wife and kids. The fact that he may bond with someone in his unit only to realize that they are gone. Watching said friend/ or buddy in his unit (or another unit) die before his eyes. The death and destruction all around him. His losing grip on reality and always thinking that he is going to be killed any second.
So many reasons why a soldier would go AWOL.

Answer 5

The act of George Bush sending troops into Iraq to find the supposed "WOMD" could cause a soldier to go AWOL because the soldier might not agree with daft mindless agression

Answer 6

Cowardice, fear of failure, problems at home, there are many excuses for going AWOL, but no good reasons. Frankly, during Viet Nam, most of the soldiers going AWOL were too cowardly to fight. Kinda like most of the young people today, I guess

Answer 7

I can guarantee not any one of us on Yahoo Answers can accurately answer this for anyone who has gone AWOL. But I will say most likely psychological stress was a huge factor in someone doing so.

Answer 8

Any number of things.

Heck, ask Bush, he went AWOL during Vietnam....but then again he wasn't really a soldier.

Answer 9

Being human!

Forget the crap about it being ‘cowardice’. That’s got bugger all to do with anything. You are talking about ‘human beings’… not machines!

They may be seen as being ‘well trained killing machines’ but underneath it all, they are still human beings like the rest of us. It perhaps needs to be remembered why the troops enlisted in the first place. If they enlisted to defend their country, and are sent to Iraq where they witness children and babies being blown to pieces by bombs that have been dropped from US aircraft, they’d have every reason to question why the heck they are there. If they witness their own friends being blown to pieces around them, it’s quite understandable that they would be scared, and fear for their own safety! That doesn’t make them a coward. They want to stay alive! They have got families to consider!

With 40,000 plus civilians and more than 2,500 US Military Personnel having been killed since the invasion of Iraq, it is understandable why they may be questioning their role in that country.

Before criticising Military Personnel for going AWOL, try putting yourself in their boots. Thousands of miles away from your family; People trying to kill you; Your friends being blown to pieces around you; Innocent women and children being killed in front of your very eyes! You’ll eventually find yourself questioning what it is all about. Defending your country? Think again!!!

Answer 10

Have a change of heart. Lonelyness, Homesick. A woman! Scared. Reasons as varied as the soldiers.