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On December 12, 2024, at a general court-martial convened at Fort Liberty, NC, former U.S. Army Sergeant Christopher M. Vassey was convicted of desertion under Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The conviction followed Vassey’s voluntary surrender to U.S. authorities earlier in the month after spending 16 years in Canada avoiding military service.
Vassey, 38, fled to Canada in August 2008 to avoid a second deployment to Afghanistan. After completing a grueling 15-month combat tour, he sought refugee status, citing his disillusionment with the U.S. military’s conduct during the war. However, his asylum applications were denied multiple times, leaving him to build a life in Canada while living under the specter of military prosecution.
During a 2012 NATO protest in Toronto, Vassey publicly voiced his opposition to the war and accused members of his unit of engaging in misconduct. “A lot of my leaders brought the war in Iraq with them to Afghanistan,” he stated at the protest. “A lot of our standard operating procedures were built off of what these guys had experienced in Iraq.” He further alleged that soldiers in his unit had paraded dismembered enemy body parts on their Humvees following the death of Army Sergeant Zachary D. Tellier.
Vassey’s claims painted a grim picture of what he witnessed during his deployment. The alleged war crimes and misconduct, he argued, contributed to his loss of faith in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. His growing disillusionment led him to seek refuge in Canada, where he became an outspoken advocate for war resisters. In 2009, he launched an online petition urging Canadian officials to allow him to remain in the country, stating, “Chris asks nothing more than to stay in Canada — to work, to live in peace, to settle into his new life.”
Despite his efforts, Vassey’s bid for asylum was denied in 2010. He was, however, able to renew his Canadian work permits annually, enabling him to maintain steady employment as a construction worker. “I’ve had steady work the past few years,” Vassey said in a 2012 video interview in Toronto. “I’m a construction worker up here, iron work. I built hospitals.” Gesturing behind him to University Avenue, he added, “I built that building right there, part of it. So I’m just, you know, doing my part for Canada, trying to build up Canada.”
His self-imposed exile, however, was not without hardships. He spoke openly about the personal cost of his decision, revealing that he was unable to attend his sister’s funeral and that his aging mother remained alone in the United States after his father’s death.
On December 3, 2024, after years of uncertainty and rejection in Canada, Vassey voluntarily surrendered at a border crossing in Buffalo, New York. He was taken into custody and transported to Fort Liberty, North Carolina, where he faced military justice.
At his court-martial, a military judge sentenced Vassey to a reduction in rank to E-1 and a dishonorable discharge. However, as part of a plea agreement, his discharge was limited to a bad-conduct discharge, allowing him to avoid confinement.
Given the severity of desertion during wartime, some may question whether Vassey’s relatively lenient sentence was a strategic decision to avoid revisiting his claims of war crimes. If the case had proceeded to a fully contested trial, it could have potentially reignited scrutiny of past military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq—issues that the Army may have preferred to keep buried. By offering a plea deal that allowed Vassey to escape confinement, military prosecutors may have sidestepped prolonged public discussions about the controversial allegations he made against his former unit.
Desertion during wartime is considered one of the most serious offenses under the UCMJ. Had Vassey been convicted without a plea deal, he could have faced life imprisonment or even the death penalty, though the latter has not been imposed in such cases since World War II. By contrast, other deserters from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have faced varying punishments. Army Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan in 2009, was sentenced in 2017 to a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank to E-1, and a $10,000 fine but avoided imprisonment. In contrast, Army Specialist André Shepherd, who deserted in 2007 and sought asylum in Germany, remains in legal limbo after German courts rejected his asylum claim.
Vassey’s case reignites debates over the treatment of war resisters and the moral complexities of military service. His story raises questions about the ethics of war, the consequences of defying military orders, and whether his 16-year exile was an act of cowardice or a principled stand against a war he could no longer support.
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