Second AWOL brother arrested in Carlton

Authorities have picked up the second of three brothers from northern Minnesota who went AWOL from the Army after a Christmas break in 2006.

A sheriff's deputy arrested Leif Kamunen, 22, in Carlton on Friday. His girlfriend says Kamunen was planning to turn himself in to an Army office in Duluth after being AWOL for nearly 16 months, but he was arrested on a desertion warrant.

Kamunen was in the Carlton County Jail. It was unclear what will happen to him next.

"We have notified military authorities and we are waiting for their response," Carlton County jail administrator Debora Zauhar said Friday.

His twin brother, Luke, was spotted during a traffic stop in the spring of 2007 and arrested on a desertion warrant. He was flown to Fort Knox, Ky., where he was given an "other than honorable discharge" last year. He's now working and attending Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet.

The whereabouts of the third brother, Leo, are unknown.

All three brothers had enlisted at about the same time in 2006 but grew disenchanted with their decision during basic training. Each brother was living with a girlfriend and said they decided independently to go AWOL. The brothers said they only learned after several days back home that the each of them had decided not to return to military duty.

Leif Kamunen's girlfriend, Angela Martini, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis on Friday that Leif had assumed that the Army would not have him arrested. She said he had spoken with someone in the Army last year who told him there was nothing in the Army computer about him and he should just go about living his life.

But she said he spoke by phone with a sheriff's deputy Thursday who had been inquiring about him in town. She said the deputy told him he would be arrested if he did not turn himself in by 8 a.m. Friday. Leif and Martini decided to circumvent an arrest by driving to Duluth, but the deputy was there to arrest him on the driveway as he left home in Carlton.

The couple have an 18-month-old daughter and live with Martini's grandparents.

"He wanted to be with his child and watch her grow up and not be in Iraq," Martini said. "I didn't want him to go either."

Bill Galvin of the national GI Rights Hotline said it is not unusual for the military to be slow about catching AWOL soldiers, figuring that most will be picked up on warrants on unrelated contacts with police such as traffic stops.

Check out our KARE family of Web sites:
	takeKARE		Metromix
	Moms Like Me		Minnesota Bound
	Showcase Minnesota