Consequences for walking away from the military

The situation you describe is called desertion under military law, and - get this - when committed in a time of war, carries the death penalty. But don't worry, that ultimate punishment is unlikely in your friend's case, but there are some things she should know.

First, most deserters do not get prosecuted in a criminal sense. They may face some sort of confinement as part of an Article 15 action, but most just receive an administrative separation. Usually the military does not want to commit a lot of time and resources prosecuting people who up a leave, but they do want to clean up the service records and get the missing person off of their books.

Second, if she is in the rare case of someone who goes AWOL or desserts, she is likely to not receive too much jail time if she gets convicted. She would have the right to a military defense counsel or could hire her own attorney. In either case, her lawyer can present evidence as to what she was doing over the past 10 years. If she was productive and did not commit any new violations of the law, this will be helpful and will mitigate her punishment a lot.