Soldier Skips Deployment

[Carol]

Good point. Of course, this brings up another question. If what was said in the link was true...that she wouldn't have been deployed, does that mean not deployed at that time or ever? I mean, it was suggested earlier that this whole thing could've been cooked up, in an effort between her and mom, to not put herself in danger. So, does any female with a child, never have to go overseas? What about the fathers who leave pregnant wives and girlfriends, who never see their child born, who get deployed? Its really no different. If you're going to do for one, you better do for all.

As far as I know it means not deployed at that time. It doesn't mean not ever...nor does it mean that the single parent has to like the options that are presented to them by the military. This is why the short-term and long-term care plans can get very detailed, it allows the service person to make the arrangements they want in advance.

Considering that single parents make up 11 percent of the U.S. Army, there have undoubtedly been times when an emergency has happened before and dealt with accordingly.

 

[MJS]

Bollocks and over dramatic
I have no hidden reason, it just amuses me to see you all falling over yourself to condemn someone. No accepting that it's just a silly idiot who messed up..... and hands up all those who haven't messed up? You want to lynch someone who made a mistake? How does it affect you, has she done you a wrong, do her actions affect you? doubt it so why all the pontificating? It's self righteous clap trap.

Its a discussion Irene, not a lynching. Its simple...if you dont like the thread, dont post in it. I find it odd that you engage in other threads that probably are not complete either. If any posts are out of line, report them. Its easy to say this was a mistake, but are you reading what other people, namely MBuzzy, who is in the service, is saying? A big fiasco is being made out of this. Why? To draw some attention perhaps? To make the Army out to be the bad guys? Its easy to say, "How is this affecting you?" Thats a cop out IMO. Let me ask you...how are any of those other threads affecting you? After all, you're not even in the states! I also find it interesting that you claim that she made a mistake. How do you know? Got some secret details that would shed light on this?

She's made a mistake for what ever reason, probably quite a big mistake and it will be sorted by the authorities. Simple. Sometimes the simplest reason is the truth, she was stupid. The armies of the world don't tend to employ the brightest sparks. You'd be surprised how many stupid actions there are that when you explain to the person they go 'dur, didn't think of that.' Never underestimate stupidity it doesn't make a person bad though, just thick.

Of course, lets look at this, in the light you dont want to. Lets say that she cooked this scheme up. She is now setting a pattern for others to follow. You are making it sound like she is the victim here. How do you know what she was thinking? You dont, and neither do I. Its a discussion Irene, nothing more, nothing less. Some are just making a fuss out of talking about a national topic. I mean really Irene, probably more than 50% of the stories posted here, are not complete...yet how many members comment about them? You're telling me you never comment on a partial story?

Yes, I post all over MT but I tend not to condemn people who've been featured in the press and it's not the first time I've said wait for the whole story. Some threads such as the one about Purple Heart medal for the shooting victims I have asked questions not opinions as I like to learn about things and I can rely on an erudite and knowledgable answer.

Ummm.....ok.

I don't understand why this girls actions, for what ever reason, cause so many peoples blood pressure to rise and as a consequence some hurtful posts are made.

Its a topic for discussion Irene, thats it. If you dont like it, dont read it.

Let me ask you something....did you actually read my OP and all of the others, or did you just jump right into this thread? Here's my OP again:

"I'm split on this. Part of me feels sorry for the girl. I mean, its a parents natural instinct to care for their child. Seems like the girls mom is pretty busy caring for other family members, as well as running a daycare. Of course, I do have to wonder if there're any other family members in the area, that would be willing to offer some assistance.

The other part of me is wondering why this girl, who is in the service, who knows, or should know, that during these times, deployment over seas is a very real thing that could happen, would have a child. Did she have the child before she enlisted? If so, then that tells me that she didn't do her homework and assumed that she'd be able to stay in one spot, come/go as she wanted, etc. If she had it while she was already enlisted, then again, the above applies.

Now, I dont want to sound cold or make it seem like I'm trying to tell people when they can/can't have kids, but its really a matter of common sense here. Kinda like someone who had a childhood dream of becoming a fire fighter, takes the test, gets the job, but never wants to go into a burning building. You join the Military because you want to serve and protect your country, and for that I will always tip my hat to those very brave people. But, I find it hard to believe that this girl is the only one, out of every service man and woman in the world, that has a family or family issues. I'm sure there're men out there, overseas, who left a pregnant wife or girlfriend, who never saw the birth of their child."

I'm posting my thoughts, my opinions on the topic. Apparently that offends you. People everywhere, anytime there is a hot topic, will offer their .02 on the matter, all of which is done, even though the full story isn't disclosed at the time. I find it very hard to believe that you're not guilty of ever doing this yourself, either on here or in real life. You're telling me that you never comment on anything until you know the whole story? Good Lord Irene, if that was the case, this forum, or more specifically this section, as well as the political sections, would be dull, dead and boring.

 

[MJS]

As far as I know it means not deployed at that time. It doesn't mean not ever...nor does it mean that the single parent has to like the options that are presented to them by the military. This is why the short-term and long-term care plans can get very detailed, it allows the service person to make the arrangements they want in advance.

Considering that single parents make up 11 percent of the U.S. Army, there have undoubtedly been times when an emergency has happened before and dealt with accordingly.

And if I'm reading the article right, it said the child was placed with someone on the base. That tells me, that there was another plan in place, in the event the girl didn't have one herself. That being said, it seems to me, that she wasn't happy with that, thus her refusal to obey an order, which, and perhaps Buzzy can comment on this, is a violation.

Seems to me that she didn't want to leave her child with just anyone. And while that may be the case, then perhaps the service isn't for her. She seems like she doesnt want to do anything that she doesnt like. I dont believe it works that way. I'm sure a very large portion of the service people today, dont want to leave family, miss holidays, miss seeing their children grow up, while they fight terrorists overseas....but they do it!

 

[MBuzzy]

There are no permanent care facilities on base. But the family of another solider could have volunteered to take the kid.

By regulations, you're right. She was AWOL and under "Failure to go" status. She can also be hit with failure to obey and order and the general article.

Nope, none of us want to leave our families, but all of the single parents that I know have had to and the kids go to friends or relatives while they are gone. We have a few of those. Many just go to the other parent's house for the duration of the deployment. Luckily my squadron doesn't have any situations like this.

 

[Grenadier]

This thread has promoted some good discussion. There are some sidetracks that could make for some good discussion, but I'd rather we keep things in this thread on topic.

If someone wants to start a new thread on significantly different material, please feel to do so, but until then,

Attention all users:

Please, return to the original topic.

-Ronald Shin
-MT Supemoderator

 

[KELLYG]

I am not military nor have I ever been. I am under the impression that once you join and are sworn in you are then government property, with in reason. If she was schedule to deploy then she should have shown up or at least made someone aware of her situation. The thing that disturbs me the most was that someone had to go in her place. How could you live with your self knowing that someone else had to take your place and could end up dying?

 

[MJS]

There are no permanent care facilities on base. But the family of another solider could have volunteered to take the kid.

By regulations, you're right. She was AWOL and under "Failure to go" status. She can also be hit with failure to obey and order and the general article.

Nope, none of us want to leave our families, but all of the single parents that I know have had to and the kids go to friends or relatives while they are gone. We have a few of those. Many just go to the other parent's house for the duration of the deployment. Luckily my squadron doesn't have any situations like this.

Yeah, I figured that unless there was a damn good reason, she'd probably be charged with something. And yes, I agree....in times like this, nobody likes to leave their family. I hate seeing stuff like that in the paper and on the news....all the families seeing their loved ones go off. Young kids, babies, seeing mom and dad leave...its really very, very sad. I'm looking forward to more of the story...if there is any, on what happens with this situation.

I am not military nor have I ever been. I am under the impression that once you join and are sworn in you are then government property, with in reason. If she was schedule to deploy then she should have shown up or at least made someone aware of her situation. The thing that disturbs me the most was that someone had to go in her place. How could you live with your self knowing that someone else had to take your place and could end up dying?

Agreed. This is really the crux of what I wanted to discuss. Not necessarily what form of birthcontrol, if any, she was using. Fact of the matter is, she has a child, she is in the service, was about to be deployed, and then this happens. Much like you said...how could you live with yourself knowing someone else went...I'd love to know if this whole thing was cooked up in a ploy to not go. Hmm.......

 

[Archangel M]

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/11/18/georgia.soldier.mom/

(CNN) -- To hear Spc. Alexis Hutchinson tell it, the Army forced her to make an agonizing choice between serving her country and taking care of her son.

The Army, however, takes issue with the soldier's story and Hutchinson could now be facing serious charges for desertion.

When her unit deployed to Afghanistan earlier in November, Hutchinson was missing from the plane. Her lawyer said she refused to go because there was no one to take care of her 10-month-old son, Kamani, and she feared he would be placed in foster care.

The Army said the young mother had plenty of time to sort out family issues and has been confined to her post at Fort Stewart, Georgia, while an investigation unfolds.

Before shipping overseas, every soldier must sign military Form D-A 53-05, which states that failure to maintain a family care plan could result in disciplinary action.

Hutchinson had agreed to such a plan and her mother, Angelique Hughes, took in Kamani in a month before Hutchinson's deployment date.

But after a week with the infant, Hughes, who cares for ailing relatives and runs a day-care out of her home, said she felt so overwhelmed that she backed out.

"It was that hard, because he's a very busy baby," Hughes told CNN affiliate WTOC in Savannah, Georgia. "You have to keep an eye on him 24 hours a day."

Hutchinson's attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said the soldier informed the Army that her family care plan had fallen through and that there was no one to take care of Kamani.

Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson said Hutchinson's unit had known for months about its pending deployment and that it wasn't until the last minute that Hutchinson notified the Army of her child-care woes.

Like all soldiers who face similar circumstances, Hutchinson received a 30-day extension back in August and September, Larson said.

That's "plenty of time," he said, "to work out another care plan."
On the eve of her unit's departure, Hutchinson was ordered to be on the plane.

"That's when it put her in this horrible situation of having to choose between abandoning her child or disobeying her superiors," Sussman said.
"The sense I got from her and the reason I think why she was scared enough to not go and get on her plane was because they would take her child from her."

Less than 24 hours after her fellow soldiers took off from Hunter Army Airfield, Hutchinson turned herself in and was arrested by military police. No charges have been filed.

More than 30,000 single mothers have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to a new report compiled by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Former Air Force JAG Officer Michelle McCleur said Hutchinson is not likely to win a legal battle with the Army.

"When soldiers are ordered to deploy, and single soldiers included, they have to have a family care plan in place ... and they need to implement that," she said.

 

[Archangel M]

We're marching everywhere.
It's getting in our hair.
We follow the rules
and follow the mules
We're in the Army now.

 

[MJS]

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/11/18/georgia.soldier.mom/

Well, well, well.....very interesting. Why is it that the more stories that I hear, the more I lose sympathy for the girl. Hmm.....

 

[Tez3]

I would appreciate not being called by my first name in discussions online, thank you. Tez will do nicely.

I didn't say I didn't like the thread far from it it's amusing to see some people get their knickers in a twist. I may not be in the States but the fact that others aren't in the UK has never stopped people posting about stuff that happens here, so fair's fair. Hell we even have threads about stuff that happens in the UK posted by non residents, but my point is not about what country it's in, it's that people are conjecturing about the whys and wherefores even going so far as to be quite nasty to each other and making personal comments that have nothing to do with the OP. What one silly girl does seems to have raised the blood pressure of some and turned it into an argument not a discusson, all those quite personal remarks when talking about contraception for example, that wasn't nice, was it?

 

[Archangel M]

Ummm..OK. Girl misses deployment.

Let's all wait till we get ALL the facts before any of us state an opinion, make a conjecture or start a discussion.

Thread over.

Happy?

 

[Carol]

I think this is an emotionally charged issue because this strikes some deeper nerves than just a wayward soldier that missed a deployment. Soldiers going AWOL rarely make the news in their hometown paper, let alone be brought to the national stage.

Our service people are getting more support and respect at home now than they were during the Vietnam era, but serving in the military is still not very fashionable or universally respected. Ask a veteran that has transitioned to the corporate world if s/he has every had to downplay or bury their military experience while job hunting or in a white-collar environment and one might get some painful answers. The U.S. media coverage has been skewering the Army to some degree over the issue, making it look like the military is this inhumane fighting machine. To me, that's a slap in the face to the people that have put on the uniform and made the sacrifices.

Perhaps another factor is that what this woman did probably brings back some painful memories. I think if she had garnered her attention by climbing to the top of the highest building in town and screamed at the top of her lungs that she could not be deployed because she was yellow-blooded high priestess that had to be returned to Planet Krypton, many folks here would be fine with rolling their eyes and dismissing her as a silly nut.

There are many veterans in my line of work and over the years I have heard men and women alike complain bitterly about a particular subset of women that had a habit of bunking off demanding or unpleasant responsibilities by saying (often at the last minute) they can't do the job in question because oops! They might be pregnant! The women get cycled in to a rotation of easier, less demanding duties for 30-60 days and then when it can be confirmed that gee, it must have been a false alarm, she goes back to her original post....until the next time she thinks she's pregnant.

While this is not specifically what the Specialist did, I suspect there is enough similarity in her behavior that her actions strike a nerve with some of the folks that have served. She represents more than just an isolated goofball with bad judgment.

 

[MJS]

I would appreciate not being called by my first name in discussions online, thank you. Tez will do nicely.

I didn't say I didn't like the thread far from it it's amusing to see some people get their knickers in a twist. I may not be in the States but the fact that others aren't in the UK has never stopped people posting about stuff that happens here, so fair's fair. Hell we even have threads about stuff that happens in the UK posted by non residents, but my point is not about what country it's in, it's that people are conjecturing about the whys and wherefores even going so far as to be quite nasty to each other and making personal comments that have nothing to do with the OP. What one silly girl does seems to have raised the blood pressure of some and turned it into an argument not a discusson, all those quite personal remarks when talking about contraception for example, that wasn't nice, was it?

Do you have anything useful to add to this thread, or are you going to keep sidetracking it? If you have something useful to add, fine, but if you're just going to keep posting about why you can't understand what this girl did to cause us to make such a fuss, is really off topic. We're discussing what this girl did. Whether or not you like it, isn't important to me.

 

[MJS]

Ummm..OK. Girl misses deployment.

Let's all wait till we get ALL the facts before any of us state an opinion, make a conjecture or start a discussion.

Thread over.

Happy?

This is what cracks me up. Someone (not you) doesnt like the thread, doesnt like the fact that all the facts are not out, so what..we're supposed to not talk? Gee, I guess when a cop gets to a crime scene, they're not supposed to investigate it until they figure out everything that happened.

 

[Archangel M]

She represents more than just an isolated goofball with bad judgment.

When I was in we called people (men and women) who constantly tried to shirk duty, "**** birds".

 

[MJS]

I think this is an emotionally charged issue because this strikes some deeper nerves than just a wayward soldier that missed a deployment. Soldiers going AWOL rarely make the news in their hometown paper, let alone be brought to the national stage.

Our service people are getting more support and respect at home now than they were during the Vietnam era, but serving in the military is still not very fashionable or universally respected. Ask a veteran that has transitioned to the corporate world if s/he has every had to downplay or bury their military experience while job hunting or in a white-collar environment and one might get some painful answers. The U.S. media coverage has been skewering the Army to some degree over the issue, making it look like the military is this inhumane fighting machine. To me, that's a slap in the face to the people that have put on the uniform and made the sacrifices.

Perhaps another factor is that what this woman did probably brings back some painful memories. I think if she had garnered her attention by climbing to the top of the highest building in town and screamed at the top of her lungs that she could not be deployed because she was yellow-blooded high priestess that had to be returned to Planet Krypton, many folks here would be fine with rolling their eyes and dismissing her as a silly nut.

There are many veterans in my line of work and over the years I have heard men and women alike complain bitterly about a particular subset of women that had a habit of bunking off demanding or unpleasant responsibilities by saying (often at the last minute) they can't do the job in question because oops! They might be pregnant! The women get cycled in to a rotation of easier, less demanding duties for 30-60 days and then when it can be confirmed that gee, it must have been a false alarm, she goes back to her original post....until the next time she thinks she's pregnant.

While this is not specifically what the Specialist did, I suspect there is enough similarity in her behavior that her actions strike a nerve with some of the folks that have served. She represents more than just an isolated goofball with bad judgment.

I think someone, maybe MBuzzy, mentioned that it was her lawyer that most likely brought the issue to the media, causing such a fuss. I'm not in the service, but the fact that what she did, is starting to seem more and more like a ploy to avoid deployment, is disgusting, IMHO. If she wanted to enlist, then she should be willing to accept ALL of the duties, including deployment. She had a plan in place, she had a backup plan, which was provided by the military, she failed or refused to take advantage of that...she deserves to go up the river.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Folks, I'm seeing some heat generating here that's not needed. Lets cool it before it flames up.

K? Thanks.

 

[MJS]

So....in an effort to get this thread back on topic....does anyone think this girl has any grounds to stand on? I mean, it seems to me that her and the lawyer and doing a good job of making her out to be the poor victim and the Army, the badguy. Personally, I think this is BS! She, IMO, had a plan, it failed. She didn't seem to take advantage of ANY other plans, especially anything that the military offered.

I think that as time goes on, more and more will come out, showing that this girl was the innocent victim she's portraying herself to be.

 

[Archangel M]

I was just thinking about this case: While people are focusing on the "what should a single parent do about their child while on deployment", it seems like nobody is thinking about the "what will happen if she gets killed" question. Which is always a possibility when you put on the uniform. What is in her will (which is a deployment necessity) regarding the care plan in event of death?

Theoretically, lets say it's her mother. She already said she can't handle it. If mom says "well if she dies that's another matter"..well IS IT? So you cant watch the child so the mother can do her job but you will take custody in the event of her death?