HUNTINGTON -- When soldiers Daniel R. Smith and Stephen C. Wilson walked away from Fort Drum in New York in early May, an Army unit was never sent to look for them.

The Army deserters now stand accused of killing the Rev. Mark McCalla, whose body was found June 19 at a shooting range in Wayne County. McCalla, who was pastor at Highlawn Presbyterian Church in Huntington, died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

While it is unclear whether the Army ever considered Wilson and Smith a danger to the public or knew where they were going, the case highlights the fact that the Army does little or nothing to track down soldiers who flee, even as desertions have nearly doubled during the past four years.

According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007 (which ended Sept. 30), compared with nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, compared with 3,301 the year before.

Army officials say that desertions still represent less than 1 percent of its half-million active-duty members. Tracking down soldiers who don't want to be in the all-volunteer military would be a waste of resources, especially during war time, they say.

"The Army does not hunt down deserters, period," said Lt. Col. George Wright, the Army's acting deputy director of media relations.

That includes deserters who have a criminal record prior to enlisting in the Army, Wright said.

"It's a crime to desert from the Army, but we are not currently resourced to seek out deserters," he said. "We would much rather focus our efforts on combat readiness and deployment."

As a result, the U.S. military does nothing more than enter deserters' names into an FBI national criminal database, Wright said.

Soldiers who leave without permission are listed by the military as absent without leave, or AWOL, for 30 days. They are then dropped from the rolls and listed as deserters.

Smith, 22, and Wilson, 19, were dropped from the Army's rolls in early June. They did not surface again until they were arrested June 27 at a Columbus, Ohio, bus station on first-degree murder charges. Investigators believe the deserters were on their way to Colorado Springs, Colo., to find refuge with a friend.

What happened from the time Wilson and Smith left Fort Drum to their arrests is the focus of the murder case.

A special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified during a preliminary hearing last week that Smith and Wilson were out to steal guns when Wilson shot and killed McCalla at the shooting range. The agent said his testimony was based on an interview he conducted with Smith a few hours after his arrest.

The deserters then drove to Newport News, Va., where they apparently sold two of McCalla's semi-automatic rifles that they stole at the shooting range and a few other guns they had with them, the agent said.

Smith and Wilson returned to the Huntington area and stayed with Robert Riner Jr., whom they served with at Fort Drum, the agent said. According to criminal complaints, Smith and Wilson told Riner they killed McCalla.

When Smith and Wilson were arrested in Columbus, police confiscated a 9 mm handgun belonging to McCalla from a bag that Wilson was carrying.

Though no one looks for soldiers after they desert from the Army, they are still on the run from the law to an extent. Without discharge papers and their names in a national criminal database, fitting into society can prove difficult. Some are caught after they are arrested for a civilian offense, while others get tripped up when applying for a job, Wright said.

It's up to the soldier's unit commander to decide whether he or she should be prosecuted. Commanders also have a wide range of non-judicial and administrative tools to address acts of desertion, Wright said.

According to information that Wright provided to The Herald-Dispatch, desertion historically has affected first-term soldiers, with 60 percent having served fewer than 12 months. Approximately 76 percent of 2007 desertions were committed by first-term soldiers, according to the Army's information.

Smith, 22, entered the Army in May 2005, while Wilson, 19, joined in June 2007. They served in the same unit with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. Smith served in Iraq with his combat team from August 2006 to November 2007. Wilson was never deployed.

Most soldiers desert because of personal, family or financial problems, not for political or conscientious-objector reasons, according to the Army. But it also has lowered its enlistment standards in recent years by accepting more recruits with criminal records or low aptitude scores.

The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee reported earlier this week that the percentage of Army recruits receiving so-called "moral conduct" waivers rose from 4.6 percent in 2003 to 11.2 percent in 2007.

Wright defended the Army's recruiting policies by saying there's no direct correlation between rising desertion rates and lowered enlistment standards.

"The Army has sets of enlistment standards that it uses to evaluate prospects for enlistment, and those standards may be adjusted over time to fit the needs of the Army," Wright said. "Any soldier who wants to enlist and might have had some conduct problems in the past is thoroughly vetted prior to coming onto active duty.

"Any criminal activity is considered and reviewed by numerous layers in the chain of command."

It is not yet known whether Smith or Wilson had a criminal record prior to enlisting in the Army. Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Young said investigators are still researching their background, but it's not a critical aspect in the case.

"It's not as important as some other things, such as gathering evidence and taking additional statements," he said.

Asked whether he thinks the Army's hands-off approach to deserters is adequate from a local law enforcement official's perspective, Young said, "That's their policy and they know about it a lot more than I do."

Because someone deserts from the Army does not necessarily make them a risk to the general public, Young said.

"But if someone commits a crime in the Army and deserts or if the Army has reason to believe that a deserter is a threat to the community, I would at least hope that the military would notify law enforcement officials," he said.

Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook has dealt with military deserters from Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on several occasions. Holbrook has nearly 15 years of law enforcement experience in the state, nine of which were with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations.

The Army's procedure of entering deserters' names into the FBI's database is "back-ended," meaning it helps law enforcement identify a deserter, but only after police have crossed paths with them, Holbrook said. But there's little else the military can do, he said.

"There's no question our military is stretched pretty thin right now, and common sense will tell you they've got hotter irons in the fire these days than deserters," Holbrook said. "But I can say from experience that the military has always been responsible about how they communicate with local law enforcement in matters of important and mutual interests.

"If (Wilson and Smith) were considered a threat and someone specifically knew where they were going, there would have been some sort of notification made from the Army to local law enforcement. Short of that, it's difficult to see what more they could have done other than enter names into the FBI's database."