A U.S. Soldier who opposed the Iraq War and was jailed for desertion says he stands by his decision.

Cliff Cornell was released Saturday after spending less than a year in prison on desertion charges. He told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. he would do it again because he is opposed to "killing innocent people."

The CBC said Cornell, 28, spent four years in British Columbia starting in 2005 after deserting the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division as it was readying to deploy to Iraq.

The Canadian government in April denied him asylum as a war objector and he was imprisoned at the U.S. Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Despite that, Cornell said from Fayetteville, N.C., "I still stand behind my decision 100 percent," adding, "I am going to spend a few months with my family and then try to head back to Canada. I have friends up there and a whole community for me to come back to."

"Canadians successfully campaigned for the U.S. military to reduce Cliff's sentence," Michelle Ribidoux of the War Resisters Support Campaign said in a release issued Saturday.

WASHINGTON --- The Pentagon is mobilizing a massive relief effort to help Haiti earthquake victims, but there are worries that the response will still take days to be in place.

The military’s efforts are at the front end of what President Obama said Thursday would be a $100 million U.S. commitment to Haitian relief.

But it is taking time to get there. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was expected to arrive Thursday afternoon but now will not be there until today. The USNS Comfort, a hospital ship, hasn’t left the port of Baltimore yet because it still needs to collect supplies and personnel.

While the assessment teams are still conducting their review of the need in Haiti, mostly in Port-au-Prince, near the epicenter of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake, there is a clear need for medical assistance.

The aircraft carrier arriving today has three operating rooms, several dozen hospital beds and can produce fresh water. The Bataan amphibious ship also possesses some medical assets and is being outfitted with more. But it is the Comfort hospital ship, with its 250 hospital beds and 12 operating rooms, that would appear to meet the most pressing need in Haiti.

A week for hospital ship to get there

Pentagon officials say that ship, one of the Navy’s two hospital ships, won’t leave Baltimore until this weekend and not arrive until sometime at the end of next week.

“It’s a slow moving vessel, it’s an older vessel, so it will take about a week to get down there once it gets all crewed up,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

Ground troops are also being sent, including a brigade of about 3,500 Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C., and about 2,000 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit in Camp Lejeune, N.C. The mission of the ground forces remains unclear, as the relief effort unfolds and government officials wait to see if any civil unrest would require an American ground presence.

Pentagon officials say the Army unit will arrive in Haiti by the end of the week. The Marines, who will arrive on the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group ships, will wait offshore and only go into Haiti depending on what occurs.

Obama: U.S. moving 'as quickly as possible'

“Even as we move as quickly as possible, it will take hours, and in many cases days, to get all of our people and resources on the ground,” Obama said at a news conference at the White House Thursday, his second meeting with the press about Haiti.

Roads remain impassable, the main port is “badly damaged,” and poor communications pose major challenges, he said.

“None of this will seem quick enough if you have a loved one who’s trapped, if you’re sleeping on the streets, if you can’t feed your children,” Obama said. “But it’s important that everybody in Haiti understand, at this very moment, one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history is moving towards Haiti.”

The U.S. will likely be the largest contributor to relief, and military officials say it takes time to assess the need and move in those supplies and assets that are most needed. But the enormity of the effort lends itself to feeding a perception that the military bureaucracy gets in the way.

Frustration at logistical challenge

Pentagon officials themselves seemed to express frustration at the logistical challenge they were confronting. Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of U.S. Southern Command, briefing reporters Wednesday, said the initial assessment team would “finally” arrive later that afternoon.

Fraser, who is new at Southern Command but now finds himself at the forefront of the military’s relief effort, is expected to update reporters on the situation in Haiti later Thursday.

Meanwhile, Pentagon officials disagree with any contention that the U.S. military is moving too slowly.

“I just don’t subscribe to that premise,” said Whitman. “I think the U.S. military has been very forward leaning on this and in terms of moving assets and anticipating requirements.”

Other officials point out that it took the hospital ship Comfort five days to mobilize and get underway after Hurricane Katrina. For the Haiti earthquake, they say, it's taking just half that long.

Arlington — All was quiet, there was no laughter in the air, not even the children spoke. Everyone knew this was a sacred and somber place. It is where family and friends come to see their loved ones who died while serving this country.

The day began with the sun glinting off of the rolling hills of marble, flowing across the land as far as the eye could see. Hundreds of thousands of fathers, brothers, sisters and mothers lay here, all of whom gave the ultimate sacrifice fighting with honor, courage and the utmost commitment for their country in conflicts from as far back as the Civil War.

It was a bitter cold day, but the sun warmed up the faces that reflected off of the rows of white headstones in Arlington National Cemetery. They stood as symbols of service and sacrifice, but this time they did not stand alone.

On Dec. 11, 55 Marines with Marine Corps Combat Service Support School, Camp Johnson, N.C., embarked on a seven-hour trip that would take them to Arlington, Va., the final resting place for more than 300,000 service members, civilians and presidents.

The Marines came to pay their respects to service members who came before them and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. For many Marines, this was the first time visiting the cemetery.

“It’s a new experience for me,” said Pfc. Dennise Alava, a student with MCCSSS. “I came to pay my respects and show my gratitude for those who fought for this country.”

What started out with a few dozen friends laying 5,000 wreaths in a corner of Arlington in 1992, blossomed to thousands of people coming to lay wreaths every second Saturday of December from places as far as California, Washington and Florida. The amount of wreaths placed on the headstones now totals more than 15,000.

Although the numbers are staggering, each wreath is placed with tender care and thought.

Wreath-layers were asked to take one wreath and then take the time to select one hero to honor with a wreath and if they have a religious preference, a prayer.

Throughout the cemetery Marines took time out of the day to stand, kneel or sit by a grave and offer a prayer, talk or shed a few tears for someone they never knew.

The Marines placed their wreaths covering an entire section of the cemetery, however, they weren’t quite finished, they still had wreaths to lay at one more section of Arlington. A section often called ‘the saddest acre in America.’

The United Service Organization sponsored 1,000 extra wreaths for section 60, the final resting place for fallen service members from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alongside the Marines, families of the fallen placed their wreaths on the graves of their loved ones.

One of the family members present was Ruth Stonesifer, who lost her son to a Black Hawk crash during the first night of Operation Enduring Freedom and is now a member of the American Gold Star Mothers.

“Sometimes during moments of panic we fear that our children will be forgotten,” said Stonesifer. “Seeing a group of strangers paying their respects to their graves gives us hope that they will not be forgotten.”

Although each wreath was a simple one made from balsam fir trees with a bright red bow, they had a great impact on people attending. Throughout the cemetery mothers, fathers, friends and siblings cried as they reached out to touch the headstone of a deceased loved one.

Each headstone bears the name, rank, military branch, birth date and the day they passed away. Most service members were in their early to mid-20s, who never got to experience a full life, raise a family or come back to see their loved ones.

“The goal for Wreaths Across America is to remember the fallen, honor those who serve, and teach our children the value of freedom,” said Morrill Worcester, founder of Wreaths Across America. “These are families here, they’re not just stones, they’re not graves, this is our history.”