A section 8 discharge
I'm surprised Slovik never got one of those to begin with. He was a perfect candidate for it.
shareThat or classified as a conscientious objector. The sad reality is they could have found a way to spare him ... but all these men who live so comfortably behind the lines ... did not. Shame on them!
shareIn Slovik's case the whole thing in a nutshell is that he picked the wrong place at the wrong time to desert because at that point we were involved in two crucial battles: Hurtgen Forest and the Bulge both of which exacted very heavy casualties and as a result of that, desertions became rampant and it was a big problem. That's really why Eisenhower
gave the final approval to Slovik's death sentence so as to discourage any future desertions. I don't know if his actions in that regard served that purpose but that's why he did it.