Stolen Valor: AWOL after boot camp, faker charged with stealing from American Legion

Man Headed to Trial for Stolen Valor

WNEP ABC 16 News
BY STACY LANGE
FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Crawford’s DD 214 discharge form would have shown that he went AWOL after a few months of Army boot camp in 2007.

Instead, Crawford told members at the American Legion that he was an Iraq war veteran injured in an IED explosion.

SCRANTON, Pa. — A man from Scranton will stand trial for impersonating a veteran.

Prosecutors say while Christopher Crawford was lying about his military record, he was stealing money from the American Legion in the city where he was a member.

Crawford was serving as an officer at American Legion Post 568 in the Minooka section of Scranton. Last summer, his fellow officers reported Crawford for allegedly stealing $16,000 from the organization. That’s when it was also discovered that Crawford was not a veteran at all.

The veterans we spoke say between those two sets of charges, it’s the stolen valor, not the stolen money, that hurts most.
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Missing Fort Hood Soldier month away from discharge listed as AWOL

Family and friends searching for missing Fort Hood soldier

KWTX News
By Brandon Hamilton
Aug 24, 2019

FORT HOOD, Texas (KWTX) Family and friends of a missing Fort Hood soldier are actively searching, hoping for his safe return.

Gregory Wedel-Morales, according to his family, was last seen Monday night.

His family says they have filed missing persons reports with Fort Hood and the Killeen Police Department.

Fort Hood confirmed to News 10 that Morales has been placed on Absent Without Leave status since Aug. 20.

"His chain of command is in touch with his family seeking his whereabouts," officials said.

His mother, Kim Wedel, posted on Facebook that he just purchased a black 2018 Kia Rio.

"He is scheduled to process out of the military in September so going AWOL just doesn’t make sense," she said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact local authorities.
get updates here

Is this the kind of guy you'd kick out of the Army?

CT army veteran gets discharge upgrade
CT Post
By Peggy McCarthy, Conn. Health I-Team Writer
April 2, 2018

Connecticut veterans’ leader and decorated soldier Stephen Kennedy has won his eight-year battle to have his Army discharge status upgraded to honorable.

Kennedy, 31, of Fairfield, president of the Connecticut branch of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, will continue his federal class action lawsuit on behalf of Army veterans nationwide who received less than honorable discharges for behavior later attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kennedy said his Army service “was really central to my identity. I was really proud of that. To have them say it was less than honorable, to have that kind of stamp on it…has been a cloud over the memory of my service.”

“It’s hard not to really take that to heart,” he said, adding that the upgrade “really feels great.”

Kennedy served in Iraq for 13 months. In the Army, he was given leadership positions, fast-tracked to become a sergeant and honored with several awards including the Combat Infantry Badge, Army Commendation Medal and Army Achievement Medal. His discharge status was based on his going Absent Without Leave for his wedding and honeymoon, a behavior he later said was uncharacteristic for him and based on PTSD, which had resulted from his military service. He had become suicidal and self-destructive, cutting himself and drinking and smoking heavily. read more here

My vote...hell no!

Fort Campbell Soldier AWOL After Hazing

Maine man charged with military desertion was hazed by team leader, father says
MORNING SENTINEL
BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
March 23, 2018

Anthony Seeley of Farmington says his son Austin and a fellow recruit were driven to leave their base in Kentucky after being put in dangerous situations by their team leader.

Austin Seeley, 19, of Farmington, third from the right in this group shot, left his Army post at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and was advised by his father to turn himself in to the Franklin County sheriff. Anthony Seeley, Austin's father, a combat veteran, said his son has been hazed and put in unnecessarily dangerous situations by his team leader. Contributed photo

The Farmington soldier who was charged with desertion was being hazed and put in dangerous situations by his team leader when he left his base without permission, his father said.

Pvt. Austin Seeley, 19, and his friend, Noah Fisher, 18, of Boise, Idaho, whose rank was unavailable but who also is enlisted in the Army, left their base, driving from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to Maine, and turned themselves in Monday at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office once the military issued a warrant for their arrests.

But that’s not the whole story, said Anthony Seeley, Austin’s father.

During an interview Thursday, Seeley said his son has undergone constant hazing – to the point of physical injury – from his unit’s team leader since he arrived at Fort Campbell in October.
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Vietnam veteran Charles Payne is a true child of the Sixties

Tracking the life of a free spirit
Sauk Valley
Andrea Mills
January 19, 2018

STERLING – Charles Payne is a true child of the Sixties: He’s a Vietnam veteran still struggling with the after-effects of the war, a multimedia artist, and a witch (of the white, or good, variety).

“A Vietnam veteran straightened me out. Survival guilt: If my buddies could come out of the grave, they’d kick my butt up between my shoulder blades for letting their deaths screw my head up. They didn’t die for that.”

It’s the latter two aspects of his life – the artistry and the spirituality – that have helped Payne cope the past 50 years with the former.

“I wasn’t wounded by bullets, but by Agent Orange,” the impish 73-year-old said. “And then here I am. Still plugging away. My eyes are deteriorating, but my spirit isn’t.”
The former California resident, who also battles PTSD, has been a free spirit all of his life, even before volunteering for the Army in October 1967.
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Air Force AWOL Found in Florida After 40 Years

Missing veteran found 40 years later leading double life

New York Post
By Jackie Salo
October 17, 2017

A U.S. Air Force veteran who vanished while on active duty was discovered 40 years later living a double life in Florida.

Jeffrey Michels, 64, went missing from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota in July 1977 — only to be found last week using an alias with a wife and kids in Sanford, Florida.

Authorities said that Michels had gone by the name Jeffrey Lantz, which he used to get a license for construction company in 1998, news station WFTV reported.

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Sailor Arrest for Being AWOL Needed Breast Pump For New Baby?

Navy: Arrest of AWOL sailor and new mother was 'last resort'
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
Feb 24, 2017

Later, the judge told the newspaper his assistant bought a breast pump for $42.39 and gave it to Gnecco.

A 24-year-old U.S. Navy sailor who had a baby in August was arrested and remains on a military hold after being accused of deserting her post, court records show.

Ana Lucia Gnecco was arrested Wednesday at her parents' home in Hollywood, Florida, after failing to report on Jan. 14 to her base in Portsmouth, Virginia, where she is a seaman quartermaster and worked in the reception and medical support at the Naval Medical Center.

Her father, Armando Rodriguez, told the SunSentinel he didn't know she left the Navy earlier than she should have.

"She basically went AWOL; that's what the Navy is claiming," he told the newspaper.

The arrest was the last resort, said Christina Johnson, a Navy public affairs officer for the medical center. "She was in contact with her command and with the Navy's arm that would bring her back to duty. All efforts were made to get her back to work, but she chose to stay there."

When someone misses a return day by 30 days, "it's considered desertion," Johnson said.
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Fort Hood Soldier's Family Wants Missing Warrior Alert

Family of Fort Hood soldier who went missing wants "warrior alert" law
KCEN
Jim Hice
November 22, 2016

FORT HOOD - The family of a Fort Hood soldier who was missing for more than three weeks before he was found dead on post wants a version of the Amber Alert law, called a "Warrior Alert," when soldiers go missing.

Dakota Stump's mother, Patrice Wise, started an online petition on November 14th entitled "Dakota's Law."

Its aim is to "change Standard Operating Procedures on how Law Enforcement and Military handle situations when our Veterans and Active Duty Members go missing."

"I have no ulterior motive except to stop another soldier or family from having to go through what I'm probably going to have to go through for the rest of my life," Wise said.

Stump went missing October 10, 2016. Soldiers conducting land-navigation training found his body 24 days later next to his flipped over vehicle near building 43028 on Fort Hood.

Law enforcement officials believe that Stump's car veered off the road into the parallel wooded area and then rolled over multiple times.

Stump's family maintains that law enforcement and the military assumed he was AWOL.
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Army Deserter Charged With Fraud And Stolen Idenity

Man faces several charges linked to defrauding VA
Citizen Times
Abigail Margulis
August 19, 2016

He was then stationed in Hawaii and was ranked as a sergeant. Shortly later, he was determined to be absent without leave and was dropped from the military and classified as a deserter, according to court paperwork. He was discharged about a year later based on his AWOL/deserter status.

ASHEVILLE - An Army deserter is facing multiple federal charges for defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of more than $150,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Roy Lee Ross Jr., 64, is accused of receiving more than $150,000 in veteran benefits based on fraudulent service-connected disabilities claims and defrauding other VA programs, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose announced Friday.

Ross was charged with one count of executing a scheme to defraud a health benefit organization (the VA), which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He also faces two counts of making false statements in connection with the delivery of health care benefits by the VA, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

He is also charged with two counts of stealing from the VA, a charge that levies a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine, and one count of a making false claim for travel benefits from the VA, which carries a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine.

He claimed he was Daniel Alfred Sullivan Jr. and had served in the U.S. military under that name in the special forces, had been wounded in combat, and had been honorably discharged from the Army, court paperwork says.
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CSM: No Troops Died Looking for Bergdahl

Command sergeant major: No troops died searching for Bergdahl
Stars and Stripes
By Nancy Montgomery
Published: March 31, 2016

Although the podcast concluded that no one was killed in the search, it did discuss two men seriously harmed on missions in the first couple of weeks after Bergdahl disappeared. Navy SEAL Jimmy Hatch lost a leg in a gunfight on a mission to find Bergdahl. Army Sgt. 1st Class Mark Allen was shot in the head on a different mission; he lost part of his brain, was paralyzed and rendered mute.

Command Sgt. Maj. Ken Wolf had a message for the families of troops killed in Afghanistan after Bowe Bergdahl walked off his post.

“Their sons did not die looking for Pfc. Bergdahl,” Wolf said on Thursday’s “Serial” podcast, the 11th and final episode of the season.

The podcast investigating the Bergdahl case from seemingly all conceivable angles over the past few months, debunked the persistent rumor that six soldiers from his battalion had been killed during the 45-day, all-out search for Bergdahl. They were all killed in August and September, after the exhausting search effectively had been called off and the mission had changed to secure upcoming Afghanistan elections, according to court testimony.
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Fort Campbell Did Not Search For AWOL Suspected Rapist?

Suspected rapist goes AWOL, but Army doesn't search for him
Associated Press
By Richard Lardner
Published: March 21, 2016

Had anyone looked, Hazelbower may not have been hard to find. After fleeing Fort Campbell, he had gone home to Lanark, Ill., a small town two hours west of Chicago. Lanark Police Chief Matt Magill and other local law enforcement officials said they were never asked to search for him.

WASHINGTON — Army Pvt. Jameson T. Hazelbower went AWOL after learning he was suspected of raping a 15-year-old girl. Despite the potential threat to the public that he posed, the self-described sex addict roamed free for nearly three months before local police collared him in Winnebago, Ill., near where he grew up.

And that was only by chance, according to interviews, police reports and court-martial records obtained by The Associated Press.

An officer responded to a call late on a Friday night in March 2014 about a suspicious vehicle parked in a cul-de-sac outside an apartment complex. Hazelbower, his pants down to his knees, was in the car with a girl, barely 14. She was unharmed.

Hazelbower's case is a window into an obscure but significant aspect of the U.S. military's legal system. Deserters suspected of serious crimes are to be prioritized for capture based on the severity of the offenses. But the Army never searched for Hazelbower and the U.S. Marshals Service was not called in, even though marshals have arrested more than 200 deserters over the past five years alone.

In fact, there was a lack of urgency to locate Hazelbower despite strident warnings from his superiors at Fort Campbell, Ky., records show. The military's version of an arrest warrant described him as a "sexually violent predator" and a known drug abuser. Also, he had gone AWOL before. "CAUTION - ESCAPE RISK" is stamped in bold letters on the right side of the document. read more here

UK Fraud Duped Veterans Charity Caught By Walter Mitty Hunters Club

Ex-soldier who lied about fighting in Afghanistan duped veterans' charity who gave him place in street transformed by William and Harry on DIY SOS
Daily Mail 
By POPPY DANBY FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 07:21 EST, 20 March 2016

Princes Harry and William helped out on BBC One's DIY SOS last October as they worked to build homes for ex-servicemen

Serviceman went AWOL for two years but never deployed to Afghanistan
Charity says it is indicative of a greater problem amongst veterans in need
Giles is due to move out this week to a one-bed flat elsewhere

An ex-soldier who lied about fighting in Afghanistan tricked a charity into giving him a home on the veteran's street transformed by Princes William and Harry on DIY SOS. Aiden Giles, 27, claimed to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after coming back from Afghanistan.

As a result, Giles played a part in the BBC programme, which was broadcast last October, and even moved in to a renovated house on the Manchester street.

Instead, defence sources revealed that when Giles's unit moved to the Hyde Park barracks in central London, he went absent without leave (AWOL) for two years.

It is suspected that he had gone to the Greek island of Zante, where his mother was living.

On top of this, during a spell in military custody he was released from the army but struggled to cope with civilian life and became homeless.

Giles's DIY SOS fraud was first exposed in December by The Walter Mitty Hunters Club.
read more here

Attorney: Bergdahl will face general court-martial

Attorney: Bergdahl will face general court-martial 
Stars and Stripes
By Corey Dickstein
Published: December 14, 2015 

WASHINGTON – Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a general court-martial for the desertion and misbehavior charges levied against him after he was freed from Taliban imprisonment last year, his lawyer said Monday. Eugene R. Fidell in a statement released Monday afternoon said he’d been notified the Army had referred Bergdahl’s case for trial.

The general court-martial goes against a recommendation made in October by Lt. Col. Mark Visger, who oversaw a pre-trail hearing on Bergdahl’s case. read more here

"VA Lying" Veteran Breaks With Group

Too bad that veterans have been aware for decades about the troubles they have all along. So much for raising "awareness" of what the realities actually are.

Local veteran behind two billboards before breaking with 'VA IS LYING' group
Daytona Beach News Journal
By Mark Harper
October 28, 2015

Roger Gagnon stands along Interstate 95 in September in front of one of two 'VA is Lying' billboards he paid for to express his dissatisfaction with the agency. The billboards have since been replaced.
News-Journal/David Tucker

ORANGE CITY — At the back of an RV park just off Interstate 4, Roger Gagnon — a disabled ex-Marine — has his "little corner of paradise," a camper he shares with his 9-pound dog Nicky.

The solitude suits him. A self-described alcoholic in recovery, Gagnon said he has maintained sobriety for years but still suffers the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and seizures.

The past several months have brought anything but peace.

Gagnon blames the Veterans Administration for a three-week coma, then refusing to pay for his nursing care while he was recuperating in April. He started posting on a Facebook page, VA IS LYING, where other veterans and their families vent about the $169 billion agency and collaborate to help one another get help with care and claims.

Back stateside, he left his unit, was declared a deserter and was not sent back with his unit after the infamous Oct. 23, 1983, bombing of the Marine barracks. When he returned to the Marines in December, he was put in handcuffs and sent to the brig. He was discharged in 1984, his service records show, and he said he entered the VA's care in 1986.
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Army Drops AWOL Charges Against Ranger-Combat Medic

16 Months after Illegal Search, Army Drops AWOL Case against Ranger
The News Tribune
by Adam Ashton
Oct 08, 2015

At the time of his arrest, Schwisow was a well-regarded medic who had proved himself repeatedly in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of his former officers said.

The Army has dismissed a long-running desertion case against a veteran Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army Ranger who spent more than a year in jail after military police illegally searched his Tacoma apartment.

An Army judge's decision late Tuesday gave Staff Sgt. Brian Schwisow his first night of freedom since he was taken into custody in June 2014.

The veteran of six combat deployments was apprehended after a team of at least six military police officers followed Schwisow's apartment building manager into his home without a warrant while aiming to arrest him on suspicion of desertion and drug-related charges.

Agents and prosecutors left no doubt in court this week that Army police erred when they walked into Schwisow's apartment with their guns drawn.

"You didn't have the authority to go into his apartment, did you?" Army Judge Col. Jeffery Lippert asked the senior Army drug suppression officer who participated in Schwisow's arrest.

"No sir," agent Jennifer Acevedo replied in court at a pretrial hearing.

That error, though serious, was not the reason that Lippert dismissed the six criminal charges against Schwisow.

The dismissal centered on delays that have kept Schwisow in confinement for 489 days while awaiting a trial for desertion and narcotics charges.
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Missing Fort Carson Soldier Found Safe

OHS Grad Missing from Army Found Safe 
Only Oswego
Steven Jack
Jun 29, 2015

SPC Danny Domres, the Oswego High School graduate, who was reported AWOL in May from Fort Carson, Colorado, has been found.

According to the Missing Warrior Alert Facebook page, Domres turned himself into Fort Carson officials late Sunday evening.

"We have worked hard to find him: the volunteers, the private Investigators, our family. We will NEVER give up on him," Danny's father Tom Domres said in a Facebook post from early Monday morning.

Danny, a 2012 graduate of Oswego High School, had been considered AWOL from Fort Carson, since Monday, May 11, when he apparently walked off the base after an alcohol test. Danny may be suffering from post traumatic stress disordered after serving for nine months in Afghanistan in late 2012 and early 2013. read more here

Family Searching for Missing Fort Carson Soldier

Family asks for help in search for AWOL soldier 
KRDO News
Greg Miller, Multimedia Journalist
May 22, 2015

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.
A Chicago-area father is in Colorado Springs, desperately searching for his son.

Pvt. Daniel Domres is listed as AWOL from Fort Carson. His family is afraid his disappearance may be the result of a form of PTSD. And they're not the only ones with that concern.

“Just something happened, I don't know what it is” said Tom Domres, Daniel’s father. “I made a promise, said if something bad happens, I'd find him... that's why I'm here.”

Domres was stationed at Fort Carson after his nine-month tour in Afghanistan ended last year.

During his training and initial tour, he had a spotless record.

“He got along with leadership extremely well. They asked him to go Ranger 12 times asked him to go sniper scout,” Tom Domres said.

But then he deployed and the 20-year-old started acting differently.

“He withdrew from the guys in the unit,” he said. “He spent some time alone, there were a couple of incidents and I think he made some bad choices.”
read more here

Bowe Bergdahl WIll Face Charges for Desertion

UPDATE
No big shocker here the press got the story wrong.

Army: Bergdahl reports are untrue, no decision made
KENS5 News
January 27, 2015

The Army says there is no truth to media reports claiming a decision has been made to charge Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion.

The Army continues to review the case against Bergdahl, said Paul Boyce, a spokesman for Forces Command, on Tuesday morning.

"Sgt. Bergdahl has not been charged with any crime," said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

"No decision has been made with respect to the case of Sgt. Bergdahl," Kirby said.

"None. There is no timeline to make that decision, and Gen. [Mark] Milley is being put under no pressure to make a decision."

In a report Monday citing two anonymous military sources, retired Lt. Col. Tony Schaffer told Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" that the Army plans to charge Bergdahl with desertion. Schaffer also told the outlet his sources confirmed to him that Bergdahl's lawyer has been given a charge sheet. read more here

Bowe Bergdahl to Be Charged With Desertion, Officials Say
NBC News
January 27, 2015

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by enemy forces in Afghanistan for five years, will be charged with desertion, senior defense officials tell NBC News. The officials say the charges could be referred within a week.

According to the officials, the desertion charges would be based on allegations that Bergdahl abandoned his remote outpost in June 2009 to avoid hazardous duty or important service, which are grounds for charges of desertion under the Uniform Military Code of Justice, or UCMJ. According to one senior official, Bergdahl's actions in Afghanistan go well beyond the lesser offense of AWOL, absent without leave, because he allegedly abandoned his post "in the middle of a combat zone, potentially putting the lives of his fellows soldiers at risk."
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The 6 U.S. Soldiers Who Died Searching for Bowe Bergdahl
TIME
Mark Thompson
June 2, 2014

Troops suggest that Bergdahl's desertion makes him more traitor than hero

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was freed by the Taliban over the weekend after they held him for nearly five years, in exchange for five Taliban leaders, who will spend a year cooling their heels in Qatar. Chances are you haven’t heard of the six soldiers who died hunting for him after he went missing, according to military officials. Now that Bergdahl has been sprung—in exchange for five senior Taliban officials, who had been imprisoned at Guantanamo—soldiers who served with Bergdahl are grumbling that he deserted and shouldn’t be hailed as a hero, especially given the resulting cost in American lives.

Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, of San Antonio, Texas, and Private 1st Class Morris Walker, 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C., were killed by a roadside bomb in Paktika province on Aug. 18, 2009, while trying to find Bergdahl. Like Bergdahl, they were part of the 4th BCT from Fort Richardson, Alaska.

Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, 27, of Murray, Utah, died Aug. 26 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot while his unit was supporting Afghan security forces during an enemy attack.

2nd Lieutenant Darryn Andrews, 34, of Dallas, Texas, died Sept. 4 in Paktika Province when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade.

Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey, 25, of Snyder, Texas, died Sept. 6 in Paktika province after being wounded by an IED. Like Bergdahl, Bowen, Walker, Curtiss and Andrews, Murphrey was part of the 4th BCT.

On Sept. 4, 2009, Private 1st Class Matthew Martinek, 20, of DeKalb, Ill., was seriously wounded in Paktika province when Taliban forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device, a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire.

Soldier Missing In Utah Declared Dead After Three Years

Missing Soldier’s Family Receives Flag After Three Years
KFSM News
BY AMY SLANCHIK
NOVEMBER 1, 2014

RUSSELLVILLE (KFSM) — A local soldier who went missing outside of Salt Lake City three years ago and was never found was given military honors Saturday (Nov. 1) after being declared dead.

Joe Bushling was an Army Specialist in Dugway, Utah.

“We have concentrated all our money and all our efforts on this for the last three and a half years,” said his father, Kevin, beside his mother, Lisa.

He went missing on Mother’s Day in 2011 after going for a drive early in the morning.

Bushling left a voicemail with a friend, saying he was out of gas and needed help. He also mentioned that he was cold, and had lost his flip flops. His parents said he used the t-shirt he was wearing to protect his feet in the desert.

His parents made several trips to Utah to search for him.
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SHOT AT DAWN:WWI 15 Welsh Soldiers Executed for Shell Shock

Shot at dawn: The 15 Welshman executed during the First World War - by their own side
Wales Online
By Rachael Misstear
Oct 05, 2014

A picture of Private William Jones (left) with an unidentified soldier

Private William Jones was one of as one of 306 young British soldiers who received the ultimate punishment for military offences

Private William Jones was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) induced by the horrors of the Great War.

But after deserting the young solider turned himself in – and later found himself blindfolded and put before a firing squad.

The young solider from the Vale of Neath was one of 306 young British soldiers – 15 of them serving in Welsh ranks – who received the ultimate punishment for military offences such as desertion, cowardice, falling asleep or striking an officer. They were all shot at dawn.

In 2006 a blanket pardon was issued for the men who died this way following a petition in the years after the First World War.

Now a new book by Neath author Robert King, who campaigned and supported the petition, portrays the brutality faced by the 15 Welshmen who all faced this terrifying end.

Shot at Dawn looks at how during the First World War the concept of ‘shell shock’ – now known as PTSD – was not known and was not accepted as an excuse for desertion or any of the other offences which resulted in men being shot.

“Jones was a stretcher bearer in France who went missing on June 15, 1917, after taking a wounded soldier to the dressing station.

“The job of a stretcher bearer entailed going out into no-man’s-land collecting wounded and dead soldiers and their body parts and returning them to the dressing station.

“It was a horrendous duty for such a young man and it could have unhinged him, causing him to desert.”
read more here