WüRZBURG, Germany — The Army has delayed until Thursday the arraignment of a 35-year-old medic who went absent without leave for a few weeks in September to avoid a second tour to Iraq.
Spc. Agustin Aguayo, with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment in Schweinfurt, Germany, was to have been formally arraigned Monday, but a scheduling conflict pushed the court hearing back to Thursday, an Army spokesman said. Aguayo is expected to be charged with desertion and missing movement.
If found guilty, Aguayo faces a seven-year prison term, loss of all pay and allowances, demotion to the lowest rank and a dishonorable discharge. Thursday’s hearing is set for 11:30 a.m. on Leighton Barracks in Würzburg.
Aguayo deployed to Iraq in February 2004, about a year after joining the Army.
The medic came to view himself as a conscientious objector in the months preceding that deployment. Soon after arriving in Iraq in 2004, Aguayo applied for conscientious objector status, a request the Army later rejected.