I am just saying that they should be large enough to make accomodations in certain circumstances.
Otherwise, they should make these standard issue for the women on the battlefield:
Posted on 11/16/2009 6:26:41 PM PST by mom aka the evil dictator
SAVANNAH, Ga. – An Army cook and single mom may face criminal charges after she skipped her deployment flight to Afghanistan because, she said, no one was available to care for her infant son while she was overseas.
Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, 21, claims she had no choice but to refuse deployment orders because the only family she had to care for her 10-month-old son — her mother — was overwhelmed by the task, already caring for three other relatives with health problems.
Her civilian attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said Monday that one of Hutchinson's superiors told her she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care.
"For her it was like, 'I couldn't abandon my child,'" Sussman said. "She was really afraid of what would happen, that if she showed up they would send her to Afghanistan anyway and put her son with child protective services."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
B.S.
The USAF has lower physical fitness standards for women than men.
That’s just a starting point on the preferential treatment.
Motherhood first, community second.
I don't think she should be released from her obligations, but there are plenty of stateside jobs that could be done. She could have been posted somewhere where she'd have on-base housing and full day care provided by the military.
There are plenty of other options; someone dropped the ball, big time.
WOW I didn’t know that sound like US Miltary could help this lady if she ask for it
I don’t know about this. If you are already in the military, what in the world are you doing getting pregnant knowing you will have to leave that child behind if you are deployed? If motherhood was so important to her, why didn’t she wait until her service time was up?
Where/who is the child’s father?
Seems to me she was already too irresponsible to be in the military in the first place, showed lousy judgement, and would I really want her serving in my unit in a place like Afghanistan?
I understand she was a cook. I’m thinking she probably wouldn’t have been in much danger.
I am sorry for the child. Single mom with a DH doesn’t stand much chance of finding a good job and dollars to donuts she will be having other kids out of wedlock. Seen it too many times.
Pregnancies like this don’t happen by accident, you know? It happens because of immaturity, bad morals and/or stupidity, and in some cases, deliberately for whatever purpose.
I can’t feel sorry for her. I DO feel for the child. It’s a shame.
And I agree with you 100% that many women serve honorably and well. This takes nothing away from them.
As for the battle of the sexes, it’s been going on forever. I don’t foresee a change anytime soon.
The military does not provide day care for free. You have to pay for your children to attend. She dropped the ball. Waiting until the last minute to deal with her problem was her fault. If you let her stay in the service with no consequences there will be several thousand pulling the same trick next month. So every woman who says she can’t get daycare should be allowed to sit her tail stateside?
The military asks for a plan, she by the report did what was requested. It sounds like her mother was unable to add another to her plate.
A commander is not uncompassionate. His/her first priority is military readiness, his/her second priority is the welfare of those soldier’s that serve in their command.
To say to a soldier that your choice is foster care goes against all the military stands for. Some will say she did this intentionally. I do not know her heart, her military background but she did make the effort, to that end not showing up for a movement/deployment is unacceptable. Certainly if she had a child, she would not have been deployed but she would NOT have been arrested. There would have been consequences but in the end the situation would have been resolved.
Now folks like CNN are making this out to be the big bad military and do not choose to get the facts. The facts will be known after the investigation but I think if it is true that she was threatened with “foster care” she took her future into her own hands and now she may pay the piper.
~FMC
“BTW, women serve honorably in our Armed Forces.”
A neighbor girl got in the wrong crowd, got pregnant, etc. She half-way straightened out, and realized the best way to fully get on the right track was to join the army. 17 years old, high-school drop-out, with a baby. But - VERY smart, very caring, and drob-dead gorgeous.
I think she lied about being a single-mother so she could join, but not sure. After her first tour in Iraq as a Medic she got her GED with flying colors. She is now in Afghanistan and out on patrols with her guys. After working in the rear in Iraq she had requested to be on the lines so she could help the troops more. Lots of the stuff she also does is treat the village women and girls too that they meet on patrols.
Her son is raised by her mom when she is deployed. She has made plans for continued medical training when she gets back from Aghanistan. I think she is still up in the air whether to stay on the miliary or not.
Yeah I think the CNN report going like this
BIG mean Miltary picking on single mom that probably be main headline
AM I RIGHT LOL!
Very close ROFL ... they need something now that they have lost Lou Dobb’s audience ... they need the libs back and they just hate the military.
That so true the ratings are still in tank now it lower since Lou Dobbs quit
Regardless the policy for this is simple. Family care plans that are not workable result is a service member being discharged. This is yet ANOTHER result of the end of conscription and the accomodations we’ve had to make for the volunteer force.
“But, I go back to the choice of “foster care” or serving your country. If there is no one capable of caring for the infant than there is nothing dishonorable about choosing motherhood.”
We are in violent agreement. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is the only honorable choice in such a situation.
Colonel, USAFR
No they don’t...as an addititonal duty I was in charge of physical fitness.
I totally agree. But I do think threatening her with fostercare is totally out there, if that is the case.
You will not believe the ridicule I received for staying at home. Most of it was of course from other women. NONE from any man.
Interesting that you found this. I have found in my work that there are many men who EXPECT their wives to work full time and raise two or more children so the men can meet their toy-goals. Women who want to be home with the children. Also men who bag out on women after a few years at home. There are few men as providers models out there.
Those are good points. I saw a lot of cases where single parents had agreements with family members or friends to watch their children if they deployed. When the time came to actually honor the agreement, the family member or friend suddenly realizes the reality of what they've agreed to. They realize that they've just signed on to be an unpaid babysitter 24 hours a day, seven days a week for anywhere from a two months to 18 months.
I estimate that about half of the people who made these agreements back out - usually at the last minute.
Commanders and NCOs stress the importance of having a reliable person to take care of your children if you're a single parent. It's a hardship for everyone inolved - the parent, the children, the volunteer, and the unit.
From the unit's perspective, they count on having a minimum number of people in certain specialties in order to perform their mission. If they don't have the minimum number, the unit is suddenly not combat ready and a report goes all the way up the chain of command to the Chief of Staff. The mission suffers and so do the careers of the commanders. A commander can be fired if his unit is determined to be "not combat ready". One person in a critical field can cause this.
I am just saying that they should be large enough to make accomodations in certain circumstances.
Otherwise, they should make these standard issue for the women on the battlefield:
I looked at the age 25-29...Females a mile and half 13:13-1400 get 40.5 points...males 13:37-14:24 get 34 points. You get less points because you are alloted more time to run LOL When I was in it was straight accross the board for males and females. I can’t remember exactly but I think all of us had to run under 14 or 15 minutes the max.
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