I understood Deserters are shot if they are caught.
I hope just the guy didn't be AWOL in the middle of a gunfight in Afghanistan against the Taliban.
Most certainly that AWOL would be Desertion and I do not know how the US Military handles that.
Desertion I know only from movies.
To the letter of military law you can be shot for desertion during time of war but I doubt if that will ever happen again.
The way it used to work, in practice, for the Navy is you would start off as UA- Unauthorized Absence. Then after 30 days you would be reported as AWOL. That is when a fugitive warrant is issued on you. Then, unless you have serious charges against you, they just wait for you to be pulled over for speeding or something and you will be turned over to Military Police and returned to face charges.
So if your molds have not been missing more than 30 days they are just UA not AWOL.