Pvt. Eddie Slovik is the only US serviceman that was executed for desertion since 1864. He was drafted as a replacement in 1944 and assigned to the 28th infantry division, at the time heading to Hürtgen forest. He had a criminal record for auto theft as well as stealing candy and drinks from his place of employment ammounting to 60 dollars over the course of a year. He ran after linking up with his unit and handed in a handwritten note to the Military Police, stating that he deserted because of fear and that he will desert again unless transfered to a role behind the line. He was given three seperate chances to tear up the note and return to his unit and have the charges dropped. He insisted on a court martial, hoping to be imprisoned and wait out the war in a cell. He instead got the death sentence but didn't believe it would be carried out as there were over 40 other were convited for the same offence but had their sentence reduced. However his insistance that he wilfully deserted as well as his threats to the higher ups that he will do it again (in front of other troops, mind you) forced the army's hand and he was shot to death by firing squad on January 31st 1945. Everyone involved, including Slovik were shocked and didn't expect that he would actually be killed. His main gripe was that the army had no use for him in 1941 when he was released from prison, and only called him up right after he got married and got his life in order, arguing that he was inconvenianced to the point of injustice.
>>18666407He really dug his own grave
>>18666407Who have to seriously fuck up to face a military tribunal, let alone be executed by the US military. It’s actually more difficult than just doing your time or just slacking off and getting a general discharge
>>18666426>>18666432There are several elements to take into account. This was the absolute worst time to desert, as the battle of Hurtgen and the Bulge created a desertion crisis that needed an example to be made of. While his juvenile criminal record was not known to the tribunal in Paris, who handed him the death sentence, but it did have an effect on the people who actually decided to carry it out. One of Eisenhower's advisors noted that he had a criminal history and repeatedly violated his parole, thus making him the kind of person that doesn't value or deserve clemency. He constantly thumbed his nose at the leadership and openly threatened to desert again and again if they tried to send him back. The prosecution argued that if he got what he wanted, it wouldn't be fair to soldiers who are also scared but do their duty. Those are some of the reasons why he of all people was executed while other who got the death sentence for the same crime were spared. Slovik argued minutes before his death that he wasn't being shot because he ran away, but because of the bread and gum he stole as a kid. But I think he just handled it in a really stupid way and just dug himself deeper a deeper until he found himself tied to a post in a courtyard, facing a 12 man firing squad.
>>18666407>>18666437He really put the slow in slovik
The case was reviewed by assistant staff judge advocate Maj. Frederick J. Bertolet, who recommended against granting clemency. Bertolet wrote:There can be no doubt he deliberately decided that confinement was preferable to the risks of combat, and that he deliberately sought the comparative comfort of the guardhouse. To him and those soldiers who might follow his example, if he achieves his end, confinement is neither deterrent or punishment. He has directly challenged the authority of the government, and future discipline depends upon a resolute reply to this challenge. If the death penalty is ever to be applied to desertion it should be imposed in this case, not as a punitive measure or retribution, but to maintain that discipline upon which an army can succeed against the enemy. There was no recommendation for clemency in this case and none is here recommended.
>>18666432>>18666426this. This guy was a 101% loser manchild who did everything possible to cause it. Especially when you consider how incredibly hard it was to actually get into trouble in the US Army during WWII. Discipline was almost incredibly lax compared to the British and everyone else. as a US army grunt you could spend the entire war fucking off AWOL, getting drunk in your trench, murdering hookers in London and snatching necklaces off of French and German women and you'd get maybe 5 years hard labour at most (which would almost certainly be commuted by the time the war ended). So imagine how much of a giant fuckup you have to be for the military courts to actually follow through on your death sentence.
>>18666448He went AWOL during the first 6 weeks of him being in France. He deliberately seperated himself from his group that was going to the front during an artillery strike. He and another man stayed behind while the rest continued on. Afterwords he was picked uo by the Canadian Provost Corp. and fucked around with them behind the lines, going from town to town and living comfortably. When he was finally returned to his unit, he immediately ran and surrendered to a cook, who called a Military Policeman. He handed him a handwritten confession note that was probably the biggest thing that sealed his fate:I, Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik, 36896415, confess to the desertion of the United States Army. At the time of my desertion we were in Albuff [sic; "Elbeuf"] in France. I came to Albuff as a replacement. They were shilling [sic; "shelling"] the town and we were told to dig in for the night. The following morning they were shilling us again. I was so scared[,] nerves [sic; "nervous"] and trembling that at the time the other replacements moved out I couldn't move. I stayed their [sic; "there"] in my fox hole till it was quite [sic; "quiet"] and I was able to move. I then walked into town. Not seeing any of our troops so I stayed over night at a French hospital. The next morning I turned myself over to the Canadian Provost Corp [sic; "Corps"]. After being with them six weeks I was turned over to American M.R[.] [sic; "MP" - "military police"] They turned me lose [sic; loose]. I told my commanding officer my story. I said that if I had to go out their [sic; there] again Id [sic; "I'd"] run away. He said there was nothing he could do for me so I ran away again AND I'LL RUN AWAY AGAIN IF I HAVE TO GO OUT THEIR [sic; "THERE"].—Signed PvI. [sic] Eddie D. Slovik A.S.N. 36896415He was given three seperate chances to destroy the note, but refused each time.
He needed a good jewish lawyer.
>>18666448Have you ever been in a war?
>>18666470no and i don't plan to ever be in one
>>18666477So why do you cast judgment on frightened people called to the front lines? Yes acting like that was absolutely retarded but you're not in a place to judge.
>>18666478>So why do you cast judgment on frightened people called to the front linesbecause i can>Yes acting like that was absolutely retarded but you're not in a place to judgecry about it. Nothing i said was incorrect, nor would any of the guys who served well disagree with me
>>18666437>Slovik argued minutes before his death that he wasn't being shot because he ran away, but because of the bread and gum he stole as a kid.Gotta admit these go hard as final words though
>>18666480You have no idea what it's like to be in that situation, you're like the people who denied being shell shocked was a thing. Many people quickly go mad when forced into terrible conflict.
>>18666487too bad lol i'm judging them anyway
>>18666490You'll never understand history if you refuse to understand how people think and interpret their surroundings.
>>18666407Brigadier General E. C. McNeil, the senior Army lawyer in the European Theater, and lawyers on McNeil’s staff, reviewed Slovik’s case. McNeil wrote: This is the first death sentence which has reached me for examination. It is probably the first of the kind in the American army for over eighty years – there were none in WWI. In this case the extreme penalty of death appears warranted. This soldier had performed no front line duty. He did not intend to. He deserted from his group of fifteen when about to join the infantry company to which he had been assigned. His subsequent conduct shows a deliberate plan to secure trial and incarceration in a safe place. The sentence adjudged was more severe than he had anticipated, but the imposition of a less severe sentence would only have accomplished the accused's purpose of securing his incarceration and consequent freedom from the dangers which so many of our armed forces are required to face daily. His unfavorable civilian record indicates that he is not a worthy subject of clemency.Talk about harsh and dehumanizing, god damn...
>>18666478I feel like this is a strange post to get hung up on. Anon isn’t judging him for being afraid of combat or for deserting. He’s judging him for having extremely poor judgement and getting executed during a period when the US military had super lax discipline
>>18666478Over 20,000 other US troops deserted during the war and 49 were sentenced to death and he was the only one who was killed because he consistently chose the wrong dialogue options on the dialogue tree that you need to have a sub 80 IQ to even unlock.
>>18666407>Pvt. Eddie Slovik>Slovik>Slavic
>>18666512Bravo Kojima
>>18666512He was a Polish American. Actual surname Slowikowski.
He was from Detroit. You fucks always pick on us.
>>18666492and you'll never stop crying about me pointing out the highly verifiable and not at all incorrect fact that discipline in the US army was extremely lax by the standards of any other armed forces of the day, which consequently led to a gigantic amount of slackers, petty criminals and all-around losers like Eddie Slovik having free reign. He literally never even saw any combat other than being within the same country that a bit of shelling was going on. It's not like he was that guy who got slapped by Patton because he had been in a frontline rifle company for years and couldn't mentally take any more heavy fighting. Why are you so pissy about all of this getting pointed out lol
>>18666407https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7FDhGJOnG0&t=104sHere's the movie about him. Having read the book, it's pretty god damn good.
>>18666407>28th infantry division>Hürtgen forestTerrible RNG
>>18666521It seems like you're the one who's upset honestly>a bit of shelling was going onYou mean the thing that drove tens of thousands of men and women mad? That seems like a rather awful thing to go through
>>18666533>It seems like you're the one who's upset honestlyno, you're the one buttmad enough to start replying to my entirely correct assertion that Slovik and 99% of people like him in the army got off very easy.>You mean the thing that drove tens of thousands of men and women mad>Slovik and Private John Tankey, a friend he met at Fort Meade, took cover during an artillery attack during the nightthis moron went through exactly half a day of stress, then flaked out yet again after a long hard life breaking into buildings, stealing cars and getting into drunken fistfights. He was a manchild loser before the war and he was one during the war Let it go buddy lol
>>18666544If you learned to read you'll realize the first post replying to you was in agreement that behaving like that was retarded>this moron went through exactly half a day of stress,Have you ever been shelled?>He was a manchild loserAre you married?
>>18666549>If you learned to read you'll realize the first post replying to you was in agreement that behaving like that was retardedthen stop trying to whine and sulk at me for attention and go about your day, unless you're a manchild loser who feels solidarity with this idiot>Have you ever been shelled?nope. i haven't spent my life snatching purses and cutting copper wire out of the bottom of dumpsters like a lowlife either>Are you marriedlmao, are you really going with the "*sniff* poor widdle boy just missed his wife" shtick now? give it a rest you manchild moron
>>18666552Are you married? Because you're the one calling others manchildren, it would be weird for someone using that insult is a single man.>then stop trying to whine and sulk at me for attention You have the option to stop replying
>>18666554>Are you married? Nope. Slovik was though and he spent his time as a married man exactly like he spent his life as a bachelor, a useless childish loser. are you a poor widdle boy that spent his whole life engaging in petty crime and blatant cowardice? uhm ackthwally u cant judge lol>uhm ackthwally uh u should just uh go away and let me be stupid and wrong in peace after i instigated a conversationmanchild. loser. moron.
>>18666552He got BTFO so now he’s resorting to personal attacks. You won.
>>18666561ayup. twat started an argument out of nowhere trying to defend some moron who literally could not be an honest everyday citizen if his life depended on it with nothing more *sniff* "u-u can't judge" lmao. Wonder what he was thinking when he immidiately dug himself into an extremely stupid hole. Probably not thinking much at all desu
>>18666560So why do you, an unmarried 4chan poster, cast judgement on married man who suffered shelling? Are you also a manchild?
>>18666563You're trying way too hard
>>18666563NTA but his charges weren't all that serious and he was always in the company of others when he commited them (other than the petty stealing from work thing). He was probably thinking about his wife who he wrote 5 times a day for months and credited with getting his life on track. I do feel sorry for him in a way.
>>18666407What a fuckin douchebag.This thread proves /his/really will argue about anything.
>>18666567>cast judgement on married manbecause he was a fucking manchild which not even you can argue against and which runs parallel to the judgement an actual judge gave him. I repeat: cry harder. >spend whole life robbing and lowlifing>get shelled once>"waaaaaaaaa u dont understand my beloved wife I have to go back to snatching purses off old ladies' windowsills now"hm, no, i'm not a manchild of that caliber, unlike you apparently lol>>18666573i know, right? what causes somebody to whine and mope about casting judgement on a guy who acted like he was practically forced to be a stain on honest society for his entire life? is this idiot >>18666569 somebody who still spends his time breaking into parking meters for pocket change after getting about a dozen chances to do better as well?
>>18666571You're wasting your time replying to an underage idiot who types like that. The entire thing is obviously a tragedy.
>>18666584What makes you less of a manchild?>>spend whole life robbing and lowlifingHow have you spent your life, are you married? He actually seemed to have pulled his life together and move on from his past
>>18666585*sniff* "n-never to drunkenly snatch copper wiring and a carton of cigarettes out of a smashed car dashboard's radio again oh boo hoo hoo" *sniff*
>>18666591You're about ten years late for this awful meme. And you're supposed to do greentext
>>18666591Again NTA, but his biggest gripe with the timing of his draft was that it happened just as he found a good woman and left his life of petty crime behind. His handlers at the juvinenile instutute he spent time in, his friends, family and soldiers he associated with all described him as good, kind hearted, but jittery and scared.
>>18666590>What makes you less of a manchild?the fact that I have not "had contact with the police frequently", have not been "arrested at age 12 (!) after breaking into a foundry to steal brass," have not been "arrested several times for offenses which included petty theft, breaking and entering, and disturbing the peace," have not been "sent to prison after stealing and crashing a car with two friends while drunk," have not been "sent back to prison yet again in January 1939," why do you ask, manchild>>18666592"uhm u should actually uhm post le dank may mays when I want u do and also like make it a pretty color"say it with me now: MANCHILD LOSER
>>18666594Why does you not having committed those things make you more grown up than a married man? There's no need to be so upset that your reddit memes are out of date
I find it amusing how he and his wife adressed each other as "mommy" and "daddy" in their letters, despite not having kids due to his wife's poor physical health and miscarriages.
