As the play's very title suggests, the central theme revolves around desertion. Our focus is on an unnamed soldier, a reluctant participant swept into the chaos of war through conscription. When fortune momentarily smiled upon him, he seized the chance to escape his military unit. "We got separated from our outfit, this buddy of mine and me. We didn’t know where they were, so we just joined this other outfit," he recounts. He briefly reunites with his troop, pleading with his captain, desperate to articulate why he cannot continue the fight. Alas, his words fall on deaf ears. The captain insists, "He told me I gotta stay there . . . and I left." Fate doesn't favor his attempt at flight; he's captured and sentenced to death—a shock to him, as he notes that America doesn't typically shoot its own soldiers. "They ain’t never shot anybody before. Not even in the last war," he protests. The sergeant remarks, "You thought we were gonna put you in the stockade and take care of you to the end of the war. Didn’t you?"

Confrontation and Consequences

In a somber dialogue, the sergeant and Father Murray, the priest, attempt to clarify to the soldier why his desertion merits such a dire consequence. Despite their differing perspectives, they unite in the message that abandoning his duty endangers his entire unit, exposing them to the lethal threat of the Germans. The sergeant emphasizes, "I mean, you heard them shooting at you. They were out to kill you. If you were in my squad, I would have shot you right then and there." His anger is palpable, knowing that the absence of even one soldier could tip the scales between survival and doom in battle against the Germans. Father Murray's reprimand echoes this sentiment. "Did you ever think that they had to do your fighting for you? Did you ever think that some of them might be alive right now, if you had been fighting beside them?" his words ring with the weight of unspoken sacrifice.

At first, the sergeant jumps to the conclusion that the soldier has abandoned his post out of sheer cowardice, believing the young man is too terrified to face the fatal dangers of war. "What was it then?" the sergeant questions, adding, "I mean, everybody’s scared. Anybody that’s got any sense." In a revealing conversation with Father Murray, the soldier admits his fear, stating simply, "I was afraid, Father. I was afraid of being shot." Despite being recaptured, the soldier does not flee again, prompting the sergeant to further question his bravery. "You didn’t even have the guts to run away," the sergeant accuses.

Yet, the soldier's fear of mortality is not the only demon haunting him. A more profound dread compels his actions: the fear of taking another’s life. In a heartfelt letter to his wife, he paints a vivid picture of the horrors that have scarred his soul. "When we rolled into Germany the first day, I was sick and I’ve been sick ever since," he confides. "There were bodies all along the road. It’s not like in the movies." These gruesome scenes weigh heavily on him, and it is this revulsion, more than the fear of his own death, that drives his decision to leave.

The soldier witnesses the widespread devastation and staunchly refuses to engage in combat, an act deemed intolerable within the ranks of the military. As the sergeant sternly reminds him, "In the army you do what you're told." Even Father Murray echoes this sentiment: "In the army...