November 17, 2009, - 11:09 am
Ban Single Moms From the U.S. Military
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I’ve always been against women in the military, except in clerical and USO-style positions because there is little upside and a whole lot of downside. They get pregnant, and they’re of no use after that, or a poor baby suffers with some other caregiver. Or other “spectacular” results: we have Army cooks, like Shoshanna Johnson, in the war zone, and they get kidnapped in Iraq. Then, when we do something about it and risk other soldiers to find the women and get them back in a way we’d never do for male soldiers. And then they repay us by attacking other soldiers on CNN’s “Larry King Live” and defending Islamic terrorists like Nidal Malik Hassan.
Spc. Alexis Hutchinson: Using Her Baby Mama Status to Get Out of Duty
Or we have incompetent soldiers like Jessica Lynch, who–after a ton of training–still don’t know how to load firearms correctly and use them, can’t read a map, and get lost. Then, we repeat by blowing our battle and security plans in order to find and rescue the female soldier. And they–at least, in Lynch’s case–get an undeserved affirmative-action-for-vulvas Bronze Star (and other unearned accolades and awards).
But those complaints don’t even take into consideration soldiers like Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, who are single mothers and jeopardize their kids’ well being if they go to war. Statistics show that a large number of female soldiers in the military are, indeed, single mothers, likely with no father figure in their kids’ lives. That’s bad enough. What happens if they die? What happens if they refuse to go when called up to go to war, using their kids as an excuse?
That’s what’s happening in Hutchinson’s case. Her story shows how much our military is hampered by and bends over backward for single mothers in its ranks. It’s absurd.
An Army cook and single mom is confined to her base in Georgia and may face criminal charges for skipping her deployment flight to Afghanistan in order to take care of her infant son.
Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, 21, who was arrested by military police Nov. 6, claims she had no choice but to refuse deployment orders when her mother was unable to care for her 10-month-old son, Kamani.
Her civilian attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, alleges that one of Hutchinson’s superiors at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., told her she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care.
No charges have been filed, but Kevin Larson, a spokesman for the Army post, says commanders are investigating, the Associated Press says.
Larson says he does not know what Hutchinson’s commanders may have said, but that the Army would not deploy a single parent who had nobody to care for a child.
Savannah’s WTOC -TV reports that Larson calls some of the statements from the Hutchinson camp “misleading” and says that the Army gave her an additional 30 days to work out a plan when her initial child care arrangements fell through.
At the time of Hutchinson’s arrest, Kamani, was placed into custody overnight with a daycare provider on the post, Larson says.
Yup, you’re paying for full-time parents for single mothers in the military. It’s like paying double or triple for one largely useless soldierette. Are Army cooks such a hot commodity that the military is willing to go through all of this? This is the military, NOT Jean George or even Nobu.
It’s time to ban single mothers–and perhaps any mothers of kids younger than their teens–from the military. It clearly exacts more costs and bureaucratic BS than it’s worth. And it harms the kids even more than they’re already harmed without having a father in their lives.
There is no benefit to having single mothers in the U.S. armed forces. Period.
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Tags: Alexis Hutchinson, Army, baby mamas, baby mammas, babymamas, babymammas, single moms, single moms in the military, single mothers, single mothers in the military, U.S. Army
I am a female veteran; my husband was a lifer; I got out to have children & am totally opposed to both parents being active duty. Obviously if the child is unfortunate enough to have only 1 parent, that parent should not be in the military.
Max on November 17, 2009 at 11:18 am