Sep 8, 2006 9:48 am US/Mountain
Family Says AWOL Soldier's Decision 'Went Deeper'
Tough Question: What Makes Someone Desert The Military?
by Alan Gionet
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) ―
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Mark Wilkerson of Colorado Springs went AWOL when his Army unit was told they'd be going to Iraq for a second time. He has since surrendered to authorities at Fort Hood.
CBS
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In July CBS4 launched a new franchise called Tough Question that is now a regular part of CBS4 News at 10 p.m. It's an opportunity for reporter Alan Gionet to drill past the basic facts of a story and give it some depth and perspective.
The family of a soldier from Colorado said the issue of service members going AWOL is much more complicated than many people make it seem.
CBS4 asked the tough question: What makes someone desert the military?
"I think the public is looking at anyone who goes AWOL as cowards and it goes much deeper than that," Rebecca Barker said.
Barker is the mother of Mark Wilkerson. Wilkerson is a young Specialist from Colorado Springs who had actually talked his family into letting him join the Army.
Then he decided he wanted out after his unit was told they'd be going back to Iraq a second time.
"I am not willing to kill or be killed or do anything else I consider morally wrong for reasons I don't believe," Wilkerson said last month while standing side-by-side with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
"When he came back at first, he wouldn't talk about what happened over there," Barker said "And he was very reserved about details and stuff and he was very angry."
His family said the anger was unusual for Wilkerson who was honored with a "kindest kid" award in high school before enlisting.
The idea that he wouldn't go back to Iraq didn't sit well at home where he grew up in a conservative military family. His father had served.
"It was very tough for us because it's like, we don't raise quitters," Barker said. "And he's like, 'I can't. It's against everything I believe in. Going back there, how would you feel if I died for something that I did not believe in doing?'"
"I think he had a problem with what he had to do in Iraq," Barker added.
A year and a half after announcing his reasons for going AWOL, Wilkerson turned himself back in at Fort Hood in Texas.
His family doesn't know what the Army is going to do next. Wilkerson is confined to base while his unit faces what could be its third deployment to Iraq.
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