Characteristics of Army Deserters in the DoD Special Discharge Review Program

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Abstract : The purposes of the report is to describe the characteristics and experiences of Army deserters participating in the Department of Defense Special Discharge Review Program (SDRP) and to draw inference from the data about desertion during the Vietnam era. Participants were divided into two groups: those who lived in foreign lands while absent without level (AWOL) and those who did not. Those groups, in turn, were compared with other deserters and soldiers of the era. Participants in the SDRP were not typical deserters of the time: 81% of them were exiles, compared to 1% to 5% for the era as a whole. The demographic profile of the exiles in the program was quite different from that of the typical deserters and from soldiers, in general, of the era. For example, compared with soldiers the exiles were much more likely to be (a) white, (b) highly educated, and (c) higher in mental ability. That finding was anticipated in view of similar findings in a reanalysis of data from the F

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