Battling on 2 fronts, mother charged as AWOL

[proud2BlibKansan]

By Claire Cummings and Raja Mishra, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff | June 6, 2007

In a rare legal clash pitting a mother against the US military, Specialist Lisa Hayes of the New Hampshire National Guard surrendered yesterday to Army authorities after being charged as a deserter for refusing to fight in Iraq until a custody case involving her 7-year-old daughter was resolved.

The dispute, among the first of its kind in New England, underscores the tremendous strain the Iraq war has placed on the Guard and the nation's all-volunteer military, whose members often leave behind needy families and tumultuous personal lives as their combat tours are repeatedly extended.

In February, Hayes received emergency leave from her second deployment to Iraq after an alleged domestic violence incident at her former husband's house, where her daughter, Brystal Knight, was staying. As the resulting custody case moved slowly through the courts, the military ordered her back to Iraq.

Hayes didn't go.

"I'm really sad that the military is doing this to me -- and not only me, but my daughter," she said in a telephone interview from Fort Dix, N.J., where she turned herself in yesterday, daughter in tow. "I do deserve to be treated humanely, and that has not happened."

more . . .
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/06/06/battling_on_2_fronts_mother_charged_as_awol/

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. This story just infuriates me!

Hayes joined the Guard in 2003 to get medical training so she could become a registered nurse. She served her first tour from January 2004 to February 2005 with the 3643d Security Forces, protecting dignitaries from attacks. Last August, she began a second tour as a guard at a prisoner-of-war compound.

[Rose Siding]

2. "I can't serve my country at my daughter's expense"

Institutionalized child abuse. I HATE THIS WAR.

snip>
Hayes was serving her second tour in Iraq when police in Dublin, N.H., told her they had twice gone to the home of her ex-husband, Tim Knight, on domestic violence calls. Knight had primary custody of Brystal.....

"It's not fair to every other soldier if we give her special treatment," said Sgt. Michael Daigle, of the New Hampshire National Guard. "There are so many other soldiers at war that are single parents who came up with a responsible family care plan to take care of their children."

Hayes said she did not file a plan because she didn't have custody of Brystal. Her hopes of leaving the girl with a family friend in Rindge fell through after the friend had back surgery.

"I can't serve my country at my daughter's expense," Hayes told the Monitor.

[Decruiter]

3. Check LBN.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2871154