Army Mother Arrested for Desertion 10 Years Later

Here is a story from blackvoices.com:

In 1998, Flynn enlisted in the Army after being homeless and spending considerable time on welfare. Due to her financial situation, and the state of her deteriorating marriage, she felt that joining the military would allow her to establish financial security for her son and daughter, then ages 4 and 8. When Flynn attended basic training in South Carolina, she left her children with a friend. Shortly after, she started a 17-week communications class at Fort Gordon in Georgia. To compound things, her family members were unwilling to take the children, and Flynn balked at the prospect of leaving them with friends given her son's illness. She was declared absent without leave in 1999, dropped from the roster and marked as a deserter. Her salary payments stopped not long after.But here's the kicker. She actually tried to turn herself in at least twice at local Navy installations but was rebuffed. Army officials asked the Navy to tell her to go home both times, according to naval authorities in an earlier story by the newspaper.Flynn got a job as a bus driver and remarried. Her children are now 14 and 18. Sadly, she was taken into custody at 1 a.m. while at her home. And on a Saturday no less. Now, she is in a jail cell awaiting for the Army to assume custody.For anyone who has ever been in the military or who is familiar with people in the service, you know that desertion is one of the worst possible allegations that a soldier can face. Of course, this is a unique situation and the circumstances surrounding it are atypical. It's not every day that soldiers are faced with a decision like this one. But I'm curious to know how many people would have done the same were they in Flynn's shoes? I think she made the right decision. It's a travesty that after all these years, she has to face these charges. This is a sad case of government not working for the people. She should have been given an honorable discharge on account of a hardship case. Hopefully, this wrong will be righted soon. What are your thoughts?

Well, here are my thoughts as posted on blackvoices.com:
I'm very sorry to hear about all of the hardship this former Soldier had to endure. However, whenever one person stops during their job, another person has to pick up their slack. Whenever someone goes AWOL, there isn't just paperwork involved, time that other Soldiers wanted to spend with their family and friends has now been spent clearing this Soldier from an installation not to mention that someone, within the unit has to clear her living area. Somebody has to pack up her belongings, turn in her military gear back into the very agency that issued it to her. I thing there was more that could have been done and once nobody was looking for her, she figured she was in the clear. She is very lucky that if and when she filed taxes that the government didn't take that away from her. We are a country at war and whether she likes it or not, or anyone else for that reason, we have a job to do. I have been deployed three times and that is at least three years I have been away from my family and friends. I do not believe that she tried to turn herself in and for what reason would she go to the Navy? How do I know? One of the Soldiers that is in my unit went AWOL, twice. He went back to Puerto Rico and being AWOL began to take a toll on his mental and he wanted to do the right thing, turn his self in. He knew very well anything could happen once he returned. He faced jail time, monetary fines and of course being discharged from the military. He turned himself into an Army Chaplain and he in turned contacted Fort Hood, got in touch with the unit to whom he was last assigned to. She went to the Navy because it was convenient for her, the Navy doesn't have anything to gain and if anything she was going to cost them time as well, so they blew her off, not somebody from the Army and if that's the case, what is their name and rank? What date and time did she speak to them? Why not go to an Army recruiter? Exactly, she went to the Navy for a reason and it was not to turn herself in.