June 4, 2007: Three brothers ... all AWOL

   "I was thinking, is this what it's going to be like the whole
time?" Luke said. "I'm not even on the bus yet."

   His twin brother, Leif, started having doubts within weeks when a
drill sergeant indicated they were probably headed to Iraq. Leif
said that possibility had been downplayed by the recruiter who
signed him up in Duluth.

   On Jan. 2, the twins, age 21, and their brother Leo, 20, went
AWOL from the Army. All three failed to return to basic training
after Christmas break in northern Minnesota. Five months later,
Luke has been released from the military, while Leif and Leo remain
absent without leave. They say they plan to turn themselves in soon.

   The Kamunen brothers are an example of a growing problem - Army
desertions have risen 35 percent in the past two years, according
to Defense Department figures. The number rose from 2,450 in 2004
to 3,301 in 2006.

   There are many more who go AWOL - tens of thousands who leave
without permission for anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days.

   "In any large group of military, you are always going to have
some people change their minds," said Dennis Schulstad, a retired
Air Force brigadier general and a former Minneapolis City Council
member. Soldiers who desert are only a fraction of the 2.5 million
in the military.

   But Ronald Krebs, a political science professor at the University
of Minnesota, blames the sharp rise on the "unfathomable pressure"
that recruiters are now under. He says that forces them to lower
standards and recruit people who might be less stable.

   "Lower-quality recruits desert at much higher rates than
higher-quality recruits," said Krebs, author of "Fighting for
Rights: Military Service and the Politics of Citizenship,"
published last year by Cornell University Press.

   The Kamunens are typical of young recruits who go AWOL, said Sam
Diener of the GI Rights Hotline, a national organization that
counsels soldiers. "The recruits are disproportionately rural,
mostly high school graduates who aren't sure what to do next," he
said.

   Still, the Kamunens' situation is unusual, simply because there
are three of them. "I've talked to thousands and thousands of
AWOLs," said the GI Hotline's Bill Galvin. "And I don't think I've
ever heard of two brothers going AWOL at the same time."

   .

   A subdued reaction up north

   The brothers' decision to walk away has made barely a ripple in
this northern Minnesota county.

   "I hadn't heard of it," said Robert Langenbrunner, commander of
the Cloquet American Legion post. Recruits pledge to serve their
country, he said. "I'm dead set against" anyone going AWOL "unless
there's something traumatic, like a death in the family."

   Bruce Ahlgren, mayor of Cloquet, noted that a couple of years
ago, three soldiers from the area died in Iraq. "It hit our area
very hard," he said. "I think young kids have a tough situation
when it comes to war."

   Ahlgren doesn't know the Kamunens. "They signed up for a reason,
and for whatever reason they changed their minds and will have to
suffer the consequences," he said. "But I am certainly not going to
condemn them for it."

   Carlton County's jobless rate is more than 6 percent. "It's
really hard to find a job that's going to pay what you're worth,"
Luke said. "You either work for McDonald's or as a janitor."

   Their father, Leo, suggested Luke join the Guard because he
believed the military would help him pay for college. "It sounded
really good," Leo said. "I encouraged him as much as I could."

   In March 2006, Luke walked into the National Guard recruiting
office in Duluth. The recruiter, Sgt. Chris Beron, told him about a
$20,000 signing bonus and, according to Luke, said that deployment
was unlikely.

   "He told me that it's really a rare occurrence that I was going
to war," Luke said. And if he did go to Iraq, "he told me I would
be sitting in the barracks somewhere fixing a vehicle."

   Beron denies that. "I tell them that we are in a war, you are in
a branch of the military. ... I tell them that in 13 years, I have
never been deployed ... anywhere. I spend a lot of time telling
them there is a possibility, but I can't guarantee it one way or
the other."

   Leif was next to sign up. He had done telemarketing, worked
construction, stocked grocery shelves and washed dishes. "I didn't
know what direction I wanted to go," he said.

   Beron "was telling us all the benefits and what we would be
doing," Leif said. "He made it seem too good to be true. All the
money, we would be together through our career. He said there was
always a chance of Iraq, but he kind of minimized it."

   Over the summer, younger brother Leo signed up too. "I was sick
of this town," he said.

   The recollections of the brothers and Beron diverge on another
issue. Luke said Beron told them not to disclose any medical
problems or juvenile records that might bar them from enlistment.
Beron denies it.

   Luke said Beron told him to conceal his scar from surgery to
insert a rod in an ankle and even sent someone to Wal-Mart to buy a
fake tattoo to cover it. Beron denies that vehemently. "I knew
nothing about this," he said.

   .

   Second thoughts

   Once at basic training, Luke said he hated the way drill
sergeants yelled at recruits. And then he started hearing rumors
about deployment to Iraq.

   He thought, "You can't do nothing now. You're in the Army, you're
screwed."

   He also learned that his unit, which was supposed to be fixing
Army vehicles, would carry weapons. He was trained to use M-16s and
grenade launchers.

   The drill sergeant told them, "Don't think you are not going to
war," Luke said.

   Maybe this shouldn't have been a surprise, he conceded. But, "I
have been living in a small town, trying to get a job," he said. "I
don't know what's going on."

   Meanwhile, the week before Leif left for Fort Jackson, his
girlfriend gave birth to their daughter. "Halfway through basic
training, I didn't want to be there anymore," he said.

   At home over Christmas, Leo started dating a local woman. "I
decided there was no way I could be apart from her for long periods
of time when I didn't feel so strongly about fighting for George
Bush's war," he said.

   On Jan. 2, Luke slept in and missed the plane back to his
military base. Leif missed the flight, too. So did Leo.

   "We saw each other a couple days later," Luke said, "and we're
saying, `What, you didn't go back, either?'-"

   Months passed, and the brothers began getting calls from military
officers, demanding they return. About a month ago, Luke was
spotted by a police officer, who told him he had a military warrant
for his arrest. He was jailed in Carlton County for a week and then
flown to Fort Knox, Ky., where he was given an "other than
honorable discharge."

   Leif and Leo remain AWOL. "I realized I made a mistake, and I am
sorry about wasting their time and money," Leo said. He wants to
move to the Twin Cities and get a job. Leif is looking for work.
Luke enrolled last week in Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
in Cloquet. None got their $20,000 bonus; recruits get half after
finishing training and half after four years, Beron said.

   .

   The repercussions

   It is not unusual for the military to be slow about catching AWOL
soldiers. Galvin, of the GI Rights Hotline, said the Army has few
people tracking them down. After 30 days, officials can get a
desertion warrant. He said the military figures that most of them
will eventually be picked up during traffic stops, as with Luke. Or
the AWOL soldier will get tired of looking over the shoulder and
surrender.

   If AWOL soldiers are still in training, such as the Kamunens, a
common penalty is an "other than honorable discharge." Diener, the
counselor for the GI Hotline, said people with that kind of
discharge can have a difficult time getting a job with police,
government or major corporations.

   "For smaller companies, it does not make as much difference," he
said.

   Department of Defense statistics show that while the number of
AWOL Army soldiers climbed by 35 percent over two years, desertions
dropped in the Navy, Marines and Air Force. Overall, AWOL numbers
were up slightly, from 5,259 in 2004 to 5,361 in 2006.

   Schulstad, the retired brigadier general, said it's
understandable why the Army's numbers were up. "They are the guys
on the ground fighting the war," he said.

   Don Olson of Minneapolis is an anti-war activist who has
counseled hundreds of soldiers, going back to the Vietnam War. He
also counseled Luke Kamunen.

   "Luke was recruited on the basis he'd be a mechanic for the Guard
in Duluth," said Olson. "He told me he really didn't want to kill
people."

   But Beron is perplexed by the brothers. He said he has recruited
nearly 200 people over seven years, and the Kamunens are the first
to go AWOL.

   "I don't understand it," he said. "The reason the three brothers
joined was for the educational benefit. Their goal was to try and
do something with their lives."

   He said the brothers made it sound as though their lives had
pretty much stalled. "I accommodated them. I provided them the
opportunity to serve their country."

   .

   Staff researcher Roberta Hovde contributed to this article. Randy
Furst - 612-673-7382