Agustin Aguayo

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Agustin Aguayo

Nickname	Augie
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	2003–2007
Rank	Specialist (reduced to Private First Class after court-martial)
Unit	1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division^[1]
Commands held	FORSCOM, V Corps
Battles/wars	Iraq War
Awards	National Defense Service Ribbon Iraq Campaign Medal
Other work	Conscientious Objector Advocate

Agustin Aguayo is a veteran of the Iraq War and was convicted of desertion by a court martial March 6, 2007. He is an Amnesty International declared "Prisoner of Conscience".[1]

1 Background
2 Service in Iraq
3 Imprisonment
4 Awards
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Background

Aguayo enlisted in the United States Army in 2003, the same year the second (and ongoing) Gulf War began. Aguayo was trained by the Army as a combat infantryman. After his advanced individual training he was stationed in Germany, and was soon deployed to the Middle East.

[edit] Service in Iraq

Aguayo completed his first tour while refusing to load his weapon. He was ordered to pull guard duties and convoy details, and never backed down from the principle of non-violence that he felt guided by.^[2]

[edit] Imprisonment

Aguayo was notified his unit would be returned to Iraq and instead missed his unit's movement to that theater of operations. When military police came to his family home in September, 2006, he climbed out of the bathroom window, going AWOL in Germany for 24 days.^[3] He was later apprehended and imprisoned for seven months while awaiting court-martial on charges of Missed Movement and Desertion. His conviction occurred March 6, 2007. He was released from prison in April 2007 and given a bad conduct discharge. He told reporters after his release from prison that he wanted to "do wonderful things for myself and my country". ,^[4]