WP: Walking Away From a Call to Serve, Virginia Nat'l Guard Desertion

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Walking Away From a Call to Serve
National Guardsman's Desertion and Army's Response Rile Winchester

By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 22, 2004; Page B01


Three years ago, Spec. Dana Jensen was a rising star in the Virginia Army National Guard. Then 25, with a perfect score on his physical fitness test, he was named his company's Soldier of the Year, and his superiors were offering promotions.

When the 570 other members of his battalion pulled out of the Winchester armory March 4, Jensen stayed behind, saying he couldn't leave his nascent business and pregnant wife. His refusal to go has elicited a fierce reaction in this conservative city in Virginia's far northern tip. Members of Winchester's large military community -- the city's American Legion post is one of the largest in the Pentagon's home state -- have organized a boycott of his firm and speak about their former golden boy as if he had taken up arms for the other side.

Jensen, who was serving an extra year after completing a six-year Guard term, said he will have little to say about the case until he has his discharge paperwork in hand. In the meantime, he said, his biggest problem isn't "the comments on the street from random people. It's been in the real estate community."

Mention of the case prompted a strong reaction last week among men having lunch in the bar at the Elks Club. Scott Aikens, 50, who handles maintenance for apartment buildings, first joked that Jensen should "be shot," then said he never should have joined the Guard if he wasn't willing to go.

....Alicia Robinson is the daughter and sister of soldiers and was married to a Marine, and she said she draws a distinction between being enlisted and being in the reserves or the National Guard. "If you make that as your career choice, you should go, but National Guard are backup," said Robinson, 34, who moved to Winchester last fall. "To pack them up and send them off when they don't want to go -- that's not right."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46557-2004May21.html

[BiggJawn]

1. And Scott Aikens served with WHICH unit, WHERE????

Yeah, the Gush Pfleghmball Chickenhawk Brigade, I'll bet.

[Bozita]

2. 18 years old in '72 ... hmmm ... prime meat for Nam

[BiggJawn]

5. Proabaly had a defective butthole...

..Like his hero Rush. Or perhaps he was in a "critical"job, like Tom "The BUG Man" DeLay...

Or the third possibility could be that he was rear-area and drunk or stoned all the time and has no idea what a REAL war is like...

[Bozita]

6. Delay tried to enlist, but minorities filled all of the openings

That's not a joke. That's DeLay's story and he's sticking to it.

[BiggJawn]

7. OK, so then it was Lott who had the "Critical" task...

...of keeping Texas bug-free?

I swear, all these pussy reTHUGlicans got so many excuses for why they didn't serve, it's hard to keep 'em straight...

And then they tell McCain that he doesn't know what it's like in prison....

[Old and In the Way]

3. I'm sure George 'AWOL' Bush can relate.

Too bad Jensen's dad was a Senator from Virginia....

[Just Me]

4. These stories really are amazing.

They reflect the expectations and priorities of real American people.

They also reflect the conflict between themes/myths of nationalism and principles associated with American values.

Amazing read. The depth is wonderful.