text: A serviceman who disappeared 40 years ago from an Air Force Base in North Dakota has been tracked down and charged with desertion after leading a double life. 
   
   Jeffrey Michels, 64, was arrested and is being held by the US Air Force and will stand trial for failing to report for duty at Minot Air Force Base on 6 July 1977. 
   
   Michels was unearthed last Thursday (12 October) in Sanford, a city in central Florida, where he lived with his wife and kids under an alias which he had used for years, investigators said. 
   
   According to a police report, Michels had been using the name Jeffrey Lantz. Records showed he used that name in 1998 to obtain a license from the state of Florida for his construction business called Atlantic Development Corporation. 
   
   There is no statute of limitations for desertion, and Michels will stand trial in a military court. 
   
   However, the military rarely enforces the highest sentences for desertion. This ranges from a dishonourable discharge, a prison term typically between two to three years, up to the death penalty. But soldiers are only executed for desertion during wartime, and even then, it has to be demonstrated that their action left serving personnel in danger. 
   
   For instance, even at the height of the Iraq war fewer than one per cent of deserters served prison time, according to New York magazine. 
   
   Also, this week Bowe Bergdahl, the US soldier held as a Taliban captive in Afghanistan for five years, pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy. 
   
   The 31-year-old Army sergeant entered his plea on Monday (16 October) before a military judge at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 
   
   The Idaho native's lawyers have argued he cannot get a fair trial following criticism from Donald Trump during last year's presidential campaign. Trump had called him "a no-good traitor who should have been executed". 
   
   The military does not keep strict records for servicemen and women who have deserted, but the outstanding number is estimated to be around 50,000 based on internal military data, according to New York magazine. ||||| An Airman who disappeared from an Air Force Base in North Dakota 40 years ago is in custody of the U.S. Air Force after he was discovered last week living in Florida. 
   
   Jeffrey Michels, 64, was arrested Thursday on charges of desertion after he failed to report for duty at North Dakota’s Minot Air Force Base on July 6, 1977, WFTV reported. 
   
   WHAT KIND OF SENTENCING COULD BERGDAHL FACE? 
   
   Michels, originally from East Liverpool, Ohio, was found living a double life in Sanford, Fla. — under the name “Jeffrey Lantz,” according to a police report. 
   
   The man reportedly used the fake name to obtain a business license in Florida in 1998. Online records show the name Jeffrey Lantz had a certified general contractor license for construction business Atlantic Development Corporation. 
   
   A photo of Michels was posted on July 9 to the Facebook group “Veteran Doe” — a website dedicated to bringing “attention to the many missing veteran/active duty cases and unidentified person cases where there is a possible military connection.” The post was deleted after Michels was discovered. 
   
   It’s unclear if the Air Force opened an investigation into Michels' disappearance due to the Facebook post. 
   
   AIR FORCE AIRMEN ACCUSED OF VANDALIZING HISTORIC SC CHURCH WITH SATANIC GRAFFITI 
   
   Michels, according to WFTV, is in the custody of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. 
   
   Because there is no statute of limitations for deserting a military post, Michels will stand trial in military court. 
   
   Reports of Michels’ arrest come one day after Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion charges after he left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl was subsequently held captive by the Taliban until May 2014. ||||| Sign in using you account with: {* loginWidget *} 
   
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target: – Jeffrey Michels disappeared from an Air Force base in northern North Dakota on a summer day in 1977—and was found last week in Florida living a double life, Fox News reports. Michels, 64, was arrested Oct. 12 on desertion charges filed against him after he went missing from Minot Air Force Base near the Canadian border. Police say the former airman had taken the name Jeffrey Lantz, married, and had kids, per WFTV. In 1998, "Lantz" applied for a business license and started a construction company, Atlantic Development Corporation. Michels, originally from Ohio, was nabbed after the Facebook group Veteran Doe posted his photo in July, nearly 40 years to the day after he failed to report for duty. (That photo has since been taken down.) The site calls "attention to the many missing veteran/active duty cases and unidentified person cases where there is a possible military connection." The Air Force hasn't explained how Michels was found, per the Miami Herald. But Seminole County authorities identified him by a scar on his left leg near the ankle. There's no statute of limitations on desertion, so Michels will stand trial in a military court, per the IB Times. He was turned over to the custody of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations. Why Michels walked away from the remote base is unknown, but the Herald notes it's known for its nuclear missile silos and hard winters. (One of the first women Army combat engineers was accused of desertion.)