Legal Question in Military Law in Texas

Re: awol son

Your son is AWOL, and, likely he is not telling you the truth. A check of his status by any police officer will likely lead to his arrest. In 30 days he will be a deserter and the chance of patching this up won't exist. He will be discharged, usually with a bar to reenlistment and a discharge of other than honorable. He doesn't want this. It carries long-term consequences.

Sometimes for a 3 or 4 day AWOL the military gives an Article 15 and forgives. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets. And the worse the punishment gets. The best thing you can do for your son is call the military police at the post where he is stationed and advise them of his location. He will be taken back to Basic Training, and given how long it has been, he will likely face something more serious than a "slap on the wrist." But if he has not been gone longer than 30 days, you still have a chance to get this fixed in a way that will limit the long-term consequences to his ability to get a government job or obtain a security clearance.

Re: awol son

After 30 days AWOL your son will be dropped from the rolls of his unit, they will prepare a charge sheet, and then they will issue a DD Form 553. This is a federal arrest warrant which authorizes any law enforcement or military unit to arrest your son.

Once arrested by civilians he's likely to spend some time in civilian jail waiting pick-up by the Army Deserter Collection Unit. It's possible he might be given travel orders on his own recognizance but not usual.

Most of my AWOL clients end up getting arrested for a driving offense. The last one I had was finally arrested after 20 years, his wife used to drive everywhere, and he only started driving when his wife got sick.

It is possible with a short absence terminated by surrender that he will receive an administrative punishment of a fine and some restriction to base and extra duty. At which point they may administratively separate him from the Army.

His Army "life" is on hold until he is back in military control. You can take him to a local recruiting office (they don't like that, but are obligated to accept him) or to a local military base (any Service), or a Reserve Center. I think it's possible he could surrender at his local National Guard Armory during the day, but I'm not sure that would work as well.