Army GC: Soldiers are more at risk when alone worried about being in trouble, when help is available. Image: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock.com
Since updated guidelines for finding soldiers who are missing from formation took effect in late 2020, commanders have more options for locating them. Additionally, these solders – who had been simply branded as AWOL or worse – are in many cases getting the help they need instead.
“We’ve empowered leaders at every level to use all the resources available to them to go find soldiers,” said Maj. Gen. Duane Miller, Provost Marshal General and commanding general of Army Corrections Command. “You don’t have to rely on law enforcement to go find your soldiers. Now I can send platoons out into the local community.”
The end result, Miller said, is these soldiers are returned to formation sooner than in the past. Negative assumptions for their absence are minimized, as are black marks against their military records.
“Just like our soldiers protect our nation from our adversaries, we must in turn protect and safeguard our soldiers,” said Carrie Ricci, the Army General Counsel.
The directive and new protocols, Ricci said, were established in the aftermath of an independent review of cases of foul play involving solders at Fort Hood, Texas, who went missing.
“Soldiers are more at risk when he or she is out there alone thinking they’re in a lot of trouble, when in fact they’re not,” Miller said. “I think every leader would rather have that as an outcome as opposed to something else where a soldier is challenged with multiple issues or doesn’t have anyone to talk to.”
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