Army prosecutes single mother for refusing to deploy and put her son in foster care.

[shopgreen]

WTF!!


http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/13/soldier-mom-charged/

Army prosecutes single mother for refusing to deploy and put her son in foster care.

soldier_mom (1)Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old Army cook, refused to deploy to Afghanistan in November because she had no one to take care of her 10-month-old son. Hutchinson said when she brought her situation to her superiors’ attention, they told her that she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care. “For her it was like, ‘I couldn’t abandon my child,’” her civilian attorney Rai Sue Sussman told the AP. After skipping her unit’s flight out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA, millitary police arrested her and confined her to the base while prosecutors decided how to proceed. Today, the Army filed charges against her and, if convicted in a court-martial, she faces several years in prison and a dishonorable discharge:

A spokesman for Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah said Wednesday that Hutchinson has been charged with missing movement .......

The stiffest charge, missing movement, carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. … But first, an officer will be appointed to decide if there’s enough evidence to try a case against her

There are 70,500 single parents on active duty in the U.S. military, but cases like Hutchinson’s are “rare.” The Army requires all single-parent soldiers to submit a care plan for dependent children before they can deploy to a combat zone. Hutchinson had such a plan; her mother had agreed to care for the boy but became “overwhelmed” caring for three other relatives and decided she couldn’t keep the baby for a full year. An Army spokesman said the Army would not deploy a single parent with no one to care for his or her child.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. God bless America.

:patriot:

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

2. Deployment or incarceration... either way the child gets sent to foster care.

At least if she gets deployed she keeps her government benefits. :shrug:

[paulsby]

3. as long as they are gender neutral in prosecuting these cases

i don't see much of a problem

[Meldread]

4. Ugh.

I hate the way the military mandates service. I think if a soldier decides they don't want to go to war, they should be allowed out of their contract on the condition they begin paying back the government for the expenses incurred during training. (This could be millions of dollars, but that's the price of backing out of a contract you sign.)

However, I can't help but feel suspicious toward this situation. I have family in the military, and it isn't unheard of for some women to purposefully get pregnant to avoid service. I am suspicious here in this situation, and wonder if Hutchinson didn't just get cold feet and try and use her child as an excuse. It sounds harsh, and I don't support locking her up until after a full investigation... and there should be an investigation. She signed a contract to serve, and clearly - for whatever reason - is in violation of that contract.

[C_Lawyer09]

5. At risk of the peanut gallery opening up

I made many responses to this situation as it originally developed, and thus took a lot of heat. I told everybody to stand by for further facts and/or clarification. I can only say, at this point, when I read the story, she was charged with dereliction of duty and insubordinate conduct in addition too the missing movement and AWOL. Of course I'm not privy to specifics, but the other charges lead me to believe that there are holes in the story. Usually situations such as these result in nothing more than an administrative discharge under honorable conditions.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

7. I'm with you on this one.

The military regs I've seen, and I've seen many, specifically mandate administrative non-punitive separation proceedings when there is a single-parent who cannot get other care for his or her children. The fact that this is being considered for court-martial means there is at least one other offense potentially involved as well.

[winyanstaz]

6. That is so tramatizing for a child...

This is just wrong!

[defendandprotect]

8. k