Essay On Conscientious Objector Duty

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In a war fought by voluntary soldiers, the line between military deserter and war resister can be slim. At the age of 19, Boise native Robin Long enlisted in the United States Army seeking a job with steady pay, medical benefits and a chance to go to college. Two years later, while stationed in a non-deployable unit at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Pfc. Long and a handful of troops from his unit received orders to go to Iraq. Long was given three weeks leave before his report date. But instead of reporting for duty at Fort Carson, Colorado on April 10, 2005, Long went AWOL (absent without leave) and spent several months hiding out in a friend's basement in Boise. In June 2005, Pfc. Long hitchhiked to Canada. Once there, Long spent several months living as a vagrant out of soup kitchens and hitchhiking coast…show more content…
My brothers and sisters do, but my grandparents ... I haven't really been in contact with them. I don't know that they're mad at me so much as they are afraid to talk to me because of the government. Did you apply for conscientious objector status before going AWOL? I tried to get conscientious objector status but my first sergeant told me he couldn't find the forms to apply and he didn't feel like looking for them. I didn't know about conscientious objector status until about a month before I got orders and that was when I first tried to do it. Shortly after that, I got orders, so I never really got a chance to apply for it. Leaving was kind of like a spur of the moment thing. It was my only option other than live underground in the United States and be running for the rest of my life or go to Canada. In the Armed Forces Enlistment Oath you swore to "obey the orders of the President of the United States," and as you were swearing to obey those orders was there ever a moment when you said to yourself, "You know, there's a war happening that I'm promising to participate in despite the fact that I don't really believe in

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