Soldier mom refuses deployment (no babysitter)

[Midnight Mike]

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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_re_us/ ... deployment

[hiss srq]

May sound harsh but fact of the matter is you join the mil. with a duty to fufill. Deal with it. Be accountable for your actions. You hear about chicks all the time who get knocked up to avoid deployment and it pisses me off. If you dont want to take the chance of having to serve in a theatre dont sign a contract. Otherwise, so sad too bad.

[Hussman75]

Have to agree with you, hiss... If you sign the contract, you deploy when told to do so. It's part of the deal. One thing that glares at me is, where is her family care plan?? Not sure how the Army does things, but the AF is always hounding us- single parents in particular- to have an FCP. Sounds like this gal doesn't have her deck of cards in order... She doesn't get much sympathy from me...

In '04-'05, we had a rash of folks coming up with medical issues that weren't documented previously and were suddenly an issue. Once diagnosed & profiled, they were deployment exempted. New rules provide that if you refuse a deployment, you get a pass, but you WILL go on the next one and you LOOSE eligibility to re-up. Pretty big equalizer, especially with the economy in the tank...

[Matt Molnar]

May sound harsh but fact of the matter is you join the mil. with a duty to fufill. Deal with it. Be accountable for your actions. You hear about chicks all the time who get knocked up to avoid deployment and it pisses me off. If you dont want to take the chance of having to serve in a theatre dont sign a contract. Otherwise, so sad too bad.

**** happens, it's possible she has a legit difficulty. Sounds like the person who was supposed to take care of the kid, her mom, may have some issues. And even if this particular chick is making it up, I'm sure this does actually happen to some folks. I don't think any man or woman forced to abandon his/her kid to the foster care system is going to be a very effective soldier.

[Tom_Turner]

It doesn't sound as though any solution to her problem is forthcoming though, does it?

Doesn't sound as though she belongs in the Army in the first place. She ought to be made to pay back the Army for its investment in her.

Tom

[hiss srq]

Doesn't sound as though she belongs in the Army in the first place. She ought to be made to pay back the Army for its investment in her.

:borat:

[USAF Pilot 07]

There are both legit and "not-legit" cases of women getting pregnant prior to deploying. Yes, a lot of the cases involve women getting pregnant in order not to deploy - not all do though. It's most prevalent in the Army where the quality of life and the support (both on and off post) are probably worst of the other services.

On one hand, if someone is so determined not to deploy that they are willing to get pregnant, then you really have to question whether or not you really want that person to deploy into a combat zone. On the other, finding loopholes to get out of doing what you signed up to do (and were probably given a hefty bonus to do) cannot be tolerated.

If this woman is the only person capable of caring for her child, then she shouldn't be forced to deploy - in fact it's probably better in the long run, both for her and her child's sake - for her to care for her child.

I propose two solutions (albeit off the top of my head), which should obviously be expanded on:
a) She finds someone to take care of her baby while she's deployed. Easy solution.
b) She not deploy but be forced out of the "active duty" Army and have to repay her enlistment bonus in full. She broke her contract so she should be forced to repay the whole amount (payment plan with interest if she cannot pay in full). If she can't pay back the whole amount in full, the Army should make her take a domestic civil servant job at her current pay grade, with allotments taken out of her paycheck until the enlistment bonus was paid off. They could make incentive programs to ensure positive performance.