Kim Rivera, the first female deserter in US history, is going on trial now after being deported from Canada last year.
Female Fort Carson soldier who fled to Canada faces trial Monday
Rivera, for those with short memories, was a Wal-Mart employee from Mesquite, Texas who married another Wal-Mart employee and started having kids. Eventually the two of them decided that they needed more money and better benefits so both tried to enlist in the US Army. Both were turned away initially for being too fat and out of shape, but Kim managed to lose enough weight to get accepted on her second attempt. So in 2006, when our troops were being sent to both Iraq and Afghanistan, Kim Rivera signed on the dotted line, enlisting as a soldier in the infantry. Then she pocketed an eight thousand dollar enlistment bonus and went off to Iraq, where, by all accounts, she served a safe and uneventful tour as a gate guard, never seeing any sort of action.
Returning to the US on a two-week leave in 2007, she suddenly developed "conscientious objection" when told that she'd have to return to Iraq, so she went AWOL and her and her presumably still fat husband skedaddled for Canada and applied for refugee status. The Canadian government eventually denied their request and booted them out of the country, and the US Army snatched her back up at the border. She's now facing five years in military prison and a dishonorable discharge.
Me, I'm fine with both punishments. Aside from demonstrating a total lack of honor and integrity, by deserting, she weakened her unit and increased the danger to other Americans still serving there. And far from just trying to live quietly afterwards, once she thought that she was safe from any consequences, she became a voice for the desertion movement and encouraged other Americans to run out on their units and their commitments. Five years really isn't long enough for this pudgy Jane Fonda wanna-be, as far as I'm concerned. I think that she needs to bust rocks or dig holes every day that she's in custody, and she should be sent over to Afghanistan and made to serve her sentence there instead of in some air-conditioned detention center here in the states. Plus, as a taxpayer, I want our eight thousand dollars back.
That's the beauty of an all-volunteer military. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SERVE. So don't sign on the dotted line if you object to war. And I agree - desertion should involve forfeiture of enlistment bonuses.
ReplyDeleteI am a HUGE fan of the hard labor option. And not just for this offense. At the very least, prisoners should have to earn their keep and board.
ReplyDeletePaladin says: "At the very least, prisoners should have to earn their keep and board."
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
And the hard labor option is likely the only viable one. She doesn't have the brains for a paper-pushing desk job, she doesn't have the emotional stamina to be an air traffic controller, and she certainly couldn't make it as a Comfort Woman.
Leavenworth WILL get her attention... just sayin...
ReplyDeleteAmen. And if I'm not mistaken, back in '06 we were still in a state of war....so anyone enlisting, especially in the Army, unless they came out of a coma whilst standing in the MEPS station with their right hand raised...they HAD to know that chances were very, very good that they would be shipped out. Give her 20 years turning big rocks into little rocks. And if she actually did become the "voice of desertion", that's right up there with aiding the enemy in a time of war. Or treason. So a MINIMUM of 20 years. And +1 to the "served in the middle east".
ReplyDeleteIm sorry to say she got 10 months thats all not enough.
ReplyDeleteIf she was drafted..that was one thing...but she was a VOLUNTEER...she knew the odds of getting deployed. Sucks to be her. I have absolutely no pity for her. She needs to spend time in Levenworth making gravel for the colonels driveway. WHat she did borders on the treason aspect. it is one thing to skip out then be quiet..it is another to become an mouthpiece for other deserters. I guess that she figured that the authorities wouldn't squash her. Again....sucks to be her...no honor.
ReplyDeleteLook, I never served in the military but this is not a draft force like we used in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteThey all volunteered for this one and thus she is libel for running. The only thing though is I wish they would get rid of the 'be all you an be' shtick where they make the military a jobs corp. The reason for the military is to defend this country and not be some kind of welfare training.
So she should face the music just as others have. Lock her up.
I don't want to pay for her room and board. Or for that of any other convict, come to think of it. Lock her up and make her earn her keep as it were, or starve. I don't get free room and board or medical or dental or armed guards protecting me. Free cable and a/c would be nice, too. And yeah, give the eight grand back, dammit.
ReplyDelete