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 ...
If the mom is telling the truth, she’s between a rock and a hard place. I’ve supervised people who had to make that decision, male and female, and it isn’t an easy one. Fortunately for me, and our mission, all of mine were able to find someone they could trust. If she can’t, she has to be about as alone as it’s possible to get.
This is hardly new. Pregnancy is a well known way to avoid deployment. This woman has just taken it a step further by claiming that she can’t find child care.
Nothing will change, however. The women in the armed forces have enormous symbolic value to the left.
I agree. Someone else will have to pick up her slack. It’s just too damn bad that same person wasn’t picking up her slack when promotions were being awarded.
It’s always chapped my ass that women join the service and get special treatment, and everyone else is expected to treat them as equals.
>>AND all of us are required to have arrangements for the care of our minor children. If not, we need to resign or be involuntarily discharged. Sorry.
Colonel, USAFR<<
Maybe I am not understanding the instant situation then? Isn’t simple ID in order here?
A good portion of today’s military is a politically correct, welfare agency, forced diversity laboratory, and daycare center.
Witness this idiot—and many like her, as well as the career of Malik Hasan.
We have many fine people in the service today—(I wouldn’t go in today for a million bucks—and not because of the war-because of the enemies within)—most of those good folks with sore backs from carrying the load for the worthless—and we have great technology. Otherwise, we’d be in deep doo-doo.
The real kicker to me was the fact that Grandmomma cannot handle the baby but she can run a daycare. The whole thing sounds like a set-up so that the soldier doesn’t have to go to Afghanistan. These soldiers need to figure out how to not have children. I am betting baby’s daddy is a soldier also and he is probably not being deployed. So they aren’t together anymore...oh well. It is still his kid, let him have temporary custody.
I don’t see where anyone failed her. She chose to get pregnant and now she chooses not to honor her contract to the Army. She has known for some time that she would be deployed. Just deciding not to show up is inexcusable. I think she and her mom got together and decided this was a way not to be deployed. We had one show up at Ft Benning last year with her two kids claiming she couldn’t deploy because daddy worked long hours. Get it in the media and every softie will be screaming, “Let the mommy go home, poor mommy.” Never mind the military now has to send someone else.
With any luck they will ask for that enlistment bonus back too!
I have a child in Iraq (and 5 of his buddies who have adopted me).
Baby, belongs with the mother...and mother with baby... easy call. I have two daughters in the USMC and still feel this way.
Single moms or if one parent is already deployed. There are families that have both parents out there.
Thanks for the support Mom!
Can I adopt you like your son’s buddies? I may be your age (or older) but we can never have too many Moms! ;) :)
No excuses required or accepted.
There exists numerous onerous duties in the military, hence the reason civilian people vaguely understand that military service requires a great deal of personal sacrifice.
I once stood as guardian for a fellow airman's child while she was TDY for training for six weeks. Since the timeframe was “so short”, we agreed that it made more sence for my family to cover hers, instead of the military mom relinquishing guardianship for her dependent child, and returning the child stateside
Every service member of all branches, married or single, with or without minor children, have to make prior arrangements for all of their dependents, in case of sudden deployment orders.
As a veteran, eligiable for re-enlistment, I had to make the hard decision to NOT rejoin the military, due to my personal family situation/obligations as a single parent after 91101.
Yes, I understand that my two terms of service, and honorable discharges from both,left no personal stain upon my honor, either way I decided.
In this case, the woman chose to dishonor her oath, and expects a court of law to “feel empathy” for her situation, enough to grant her special privileges not afforded to her peers.
I say she either accepts a dishonorable discharge,or spends a few years in Leavenworth, and then accepts a dishonorable discharge.
No excuses.
I was thinking that the kid’s father should step up to the plate here. Unless he’s dead, maybe the court should order him to take temporary custody.
The best solution to this problem is the one that will never occur. Women should never have been permitted to join the Armed Forces.
Well according to my son, I am now 120 years old. My birth certificate on the other hand says 46. Do you want Christmas presents too? :D Their St Nick packages go out tomorrow. The Christmas packages will go out the day after Thanksgiving.
“...servicewomen with children will use them to get out of just about everything.”
During my 40 years in the workforce, it’s been my experience that about 90% of ALL women use their children to “get out of just about everything”.
How about my Christmas Present is to send them Christmas Presents? And I guess I am 150 or so... ;)
How many times does this bear repeating?
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