1% of enlisted soldiers are deserters?

I just came across this statistic, reported by the Guardian, source – US military –

The army reported 2,781 deserters in 2003 and 1,470 in the first five months of this year, according to Lieutenant Colonel John Jessup, who collects army desertion data for the Pentagon. This makes up less than 1% of the enlisted soldiers; far lower than the average of 5% during the Vietnam war years, a fact explained largely by the absence of a draft for this war.

That seems pretty high. 1,500 deserters in FIVE months? Why isn’t anyone talking about this? Another way to look at this is that with 7,000 wounded, 4,000 deserters and 1,000 killed, the US military is 12,000 soldiers short of it’s numbers when it invaded Iraq.