Soldier Takes Four Years To Read Job Description; Deserts to Germany
December 1, 2008 · Print This Article
Andre Shepard was shocked to learn that the Apache helicopter gunships he was working as a mechanic on were being used to kill people. So he has deserted to Germany and is seeking asylum there.
Andre Shepherd, 31, who served in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 as an Apache helicopter mechanic in the 412th Aviation Support Battalion, has been living in Germany since deserting last year.
“When I read and heard about people being ripped to shreds from machine guns or being blown to bits by the Hellfire missiles I began to feel ashamed about what I was doing,” Shepherd told a Frankfurt news conference Thursday.
“I could not in good conscience continue to serve.”
Shepherd, originally from Cleveland, Ohio and ranked as an army specialist, applied for asylum in Germany Wednesday, said Tim Huber from the Military Counseling Network, a non-military group which is assisting him.
Does the Army give ASVAB waivers to helicopter mechanics these days or is this douchebag just playing dumb?
The sorry scum needs to stay in Germany. If he ever even dreams of coming back to the U.S. let him spend the rest of his days in prison.
Scum? What’s the point of having a website for supplementing the content of the corporate news? Aren’t the big stories enough for you people?
He was not “shocked.” Right-wingers are the worst offenders when it comes to concealing the barbarism of war behind fancy titles and medals. Thanks to lying recruiters (though they don’t necessarily lie about what the real consequences of the job of killing brown people is) armed with federal money and promises to give people decent-paying jobs and a college education, some people have few choices to achieve the so-called American dream. But it’s so hard to even get desperate people that they’ve been letting in skin heads! Way to go assholes. Clearly the magical fantastical, totally illogical and ahistorical commitment to the military and American imperialism is so supportable that someone who would oppose it and try to research the largely under reported air war in Iraq is “scum.” You people are probably “equal opportunity critics” like the libertarians Trey Parker and Matt Stone of sometimes claim to be.
Thought I’d inject a bit of reality into this pathetic, hipster dick-measuring contest of a website.
People like Courtney Smith make me laugh. We po people needs helps…we aint go no place to go but the army and kill brown peoples. I can’t get anywhere without the help of altrustic people such as Courtney. My poor white trash ass had to join the army. This guy is just an idiot…
Wow maybe I’ll move to Fidel or Hugo’s lands of social justice and equality. I can be free of all of this corporate evil and be given what I need…or more precisely what they say I need. I truly laothe people like Courtney. They have never seen the true face of evil, poverty or injustice.
The difference between her and I is that although I completely disagree with what she has to say Ill fight to the death for her right to say it. (Voltaire)
just injecting more reality…
Cliched ignorant anti-military tripe now counts as “reality?” Go choke on the irony of you calling someone else a hipster, toolbag.
I have a few comments here:
First, the United States is the ONLY 100% volunteer military in the world. Nobody is forced to serve their country, there are other ways to make money for college. However, if you do choose to serve, you damn well better be intelligent enough to realize that you CAN and WILL be called to serve in a combat zone. That is part of the deal, if you want money for college from the military, you MUST be prepared to serve in a combat zone. This means you WILL be involved either directly or indirectly in the death of soldiers and civilians…THAT IS WAR!
Second, I want to take a moment to make one point very clear. INNOCENT people DIE in a war! That is the reality of it. I’m sorry, it sucks, but it happens, and there is NOTHING we can do about it. What separates “us” from “them” is that we DO NOT DELIBERATELY TARGET civilians! The “terrorists,” for lack of a better word, DO TARGET CIVILIANS. I spent 15 months as a medic in SW Baghdad with a scout reconnaissence unit, I have seen it with my own eyes. Now, do innocent people die as a result of US firepower? Yes, unfortunately, but that is the REALITY of war. DEAL WITH IT or tell our government to pull us out.
Ms. Smith - I respect your point of view, however, you do not know the “reality” of our military. I am sick and tired of soldiers playing the “dumb” card when it comes to serving in combat. If you joined the military post-9/11, you KNOW what you are getting yourself into. This Shepard guy is a coward and a deserter. He claims he was “ashamed of what [he] was doing.” Well he was an ignorant POG (Person Other than Grunt), which means he didn’t see a second of actual combat. He has no idea about the horrible and terrible things that “terrorists” do over there. IN ADDITION, an what people sitting back home in their comfy leather couches and watching their plasma TV’s, is that the “terrorists” KNOW our tactics and how to spin things towards our media. They know to remove weapons or stash them in places so that they appear to be “innocent” bystanders. Trust me, 99.9% of the time someone gets “ripped apart” by US fire they damn well deserve it.
Next time you want to sympathize with a cowardly deserter like Shepard, I want you to read the story of the soldiers who go out on patrol every day and lay their lives on the line to PROTECT the civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan. And then think how they feel when they get accused of being murderers and inhuman animals when they watch their best friends get blown to pieces by some guy in a field with a cell phone, and then open fire on him b/c they KNOW their tactic is to wait for us to get out of our trucks to help our fellow soldiers (something they would never do) and then they detonate a second and third “roadside bomb.” But hey, he didn’t have an AK so I guess that makes him “innocent.”
“Mr. Shepard” - It makes me sick that some cowardly mechanic sitting back on the safety of a well protected base as the nerve to judge what REAL soldiers do in combat. And to top it off, you try to dishonor those soldiers by crying to the media about how “hard” it is to do your job. Do the real soldiers a favor and next time you decide to rescind on a commitment, don’t attempt to make yourself feel better by undermining the brave and honorable actions of those her serve their country with loyalty and courage.