AWOL soldier surrenders 19 months later

We should be keeping up with this young man.

AP Wire 08/31/2006 AWOL soldier surrenders 19 months later:

KILLEEN, Texas - A year and a half after going AWOL before his second deployment to Iraq, a soldier surrendered at Fort Hood on Thursday with a dozen war protesters by his side.

Army Spc. Mark Wilkerson said he was tired of running and sought help from Cindy Sheehan's protest camp in nearby Crawford, which helps educate soldiers about their rights as war resisters.

'I just could not in good conscience go back to a war I felt was wrong,' Wilkerson, 22, of Colorado Springs, Colo., said at Sheehan's camp before the 40-mile trip to the post near Killeen where he had been stationed.

After the group arrived, Wilkerson spoke briefly with two military officials near the visitors' center, talked to the news media, hugged his supporters who wiped away tears, then walked toward the post.

Wilkerson will not be confined to a cell or other facility when he returns to his unit, said Maj. Joe Edstrom of the post's public affairs office. He said he did not know if Wilkerson will be restricted to the post or what punishment he faces, but said his company commander will decide.

'He's back in the United States Army as a soldier again,' Edstrom said.

Wilkerson, who said he never left the country but won't reveal where he was, heard about Sheehan's efforts to help war resisters after he already decided to surrender. He is the first absent-without-leave soldier to come forward as part of her group.

'It's amazingly scary to do what he's doing,' said Sheehan, who did not travel to Killeen on Thursday. 'He has all of our support, but when he gets to Fort Hood, he's going to be by himself.'