Single Mom Who Refused Duty Discharged

[MPA]

Sounds like it may have been a "less than honorable" discharge.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100212/ap_on_re_us/us_soldier_mom_deployment

[garhkal]

seems they were a little too lenient on her.

[ChicknIsGud]

Good riddance to the dishonorable soldier.

[bb stacker]

im siding with her, my family comes first.

[ChicknIsGud]

Side with her all you want...there were other soldiers who she told that she had no intention of deploying...the child was part of the "reason"...if it wasn't the child, it would have been something else. Again...good riddance.

[mel44]

Slacker! I am damn glad she is gone! My husband, son, daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, nephew, cousin are all safer that she is gone!

[former31B]

Indeed good riddance. Those who can't or won't deploy should be shown the door; some honorably since they tried, others, like this woman, less than honorably.

[MCGYVER]

Worthless P.O.S. that never intended to honor her contract. A disgrace to all mothers, all Soldiers and all Americans.

[TJMAC77SP]

Damn.....I am sitting here feeling inadequate. I read an article and somehow am not blessed with the ability to see into the minds and intents of those the article was written about. I don't know all the facts so can't say with any conviction what the real and full story is. Damn, damn damn.....I am feeling so inadequate.

[ChicknIsGud]

Can't see the forest for the trees, huh? Intent my hiney...

[acesfilter]

I agree. Almost no one that is adequately informed joins the military expecting not to deploy. It just sounds too much like someone who was plotting to have their cake and eat it, too--so to speak.

[TJMAC77SP]

Hmmmmm seems I wasn't clear. Let me rephrase.............


Damn.....I am sitting here feeling inadequate. I read an article and somehow am not blessed with the ability to see into the minds and intents of those the article was written about. I don't know all the facts so can't say with any conviction what the real and full story is. Damn, damn damn.....I am feeling so inadequate.

[Texpat]

If she'd consider a little canyon yodeling, there would be hundreds of like-minded victims lining up in her defense.

[bb stacker]

I agree. Almost no one that is adequately informed joins the military expecting not to deploy. It just sounds too much like someone who was plotting to have their cake and eat it, too--so to speak.

she knew she was going to deploy because she had a plan. that plan fell through. now i dont know about you but i dont trust my kids with just anyone. IMO they either should have swapped someone else into her place or delayed her reporting.

[INGUARD]

They said there were witnesses that could attest she was trying to find whatever reason to get out of her deployment. I am located by her unit and they all just roll their eyes when you mention her name.

This is the article. She is getting an other than honorable discharge. She lost in the long run.



http://www.truthout.org/army-dischar...rtial-her56846

On Thursday, February 11, Army Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother of an infant son, was informed she would be granted an administrative discharge from the Army.
Last fall, Hutchinson was ordered to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan. On November 5, 2009, after her childcare plans fell through, Hutchinson was faced with the dilemma of having no one to take care of her son when she deployed to a war zone.
She chose not to show up for the plane to Afghanistan and missed her deployment. When she reported for duty the following day the Army arrested her and took away her son, who was allegedly placed in an Army day care. His grandmother, Angelique Hughes of Oakland, California, picked him up a few days later. Alexis was granted leave to go home for the holidays in December, and returned to Georgia with her baby, Kamani, in early January.
After Hutchinson returned to Georgia in January, the Army filed court-martial charges against her and refused to discharge her under the Army regulations that clearly allow for discharges for reasons of parenthood responsibility. Truthout broke the story on January 14.
Both Hutchinson and her civilian attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, are happy with the results. In a press release from Sussman's office, Hutchinson said that she is "excited to know what will happen to me, and that I am not facing jail. This means I can still be with my son, which is the most important thing." Hutchinson will receive an "Other Than Honorable" discharge, but will not be facing criminal charges at a court-martial, which would have subjected her to a bad-conduct discharge and up to a year in jail if she lost, as well as a criminal record.
"Alexis is pleased because she now will have closure and knows what is going to happen to her," Sussman told Truthout. "She is no longer waiting to possibly go to trial and jail, all the while trying to figure out what to do with her child. She feels she was treated unfairly overall, but is relieved with this outcome."
Until this recent decision, the Army had opted to court-martial Hutchinson as her commander believed she was attempting to get out of her Afghanistan deployment. Both Hutchinson and Sussman have consistently stated that Hutchinson always fully intended to deploy until her childcare plans fell through.
Hutchinson's mother, Angelique Hughes, was thrilled with the recent news.
"I'm very happy," Hughes told Truthout via telephone from her home in Oakland. "I just found out myself. I'm glad it worked out."
However, Hughes was concerned about the fact that due to Hutchinson's "Other Than Honorable" discharge, she will not maintain any of her benefits, like medical care for herself and her infant son.
"I don't know why they didn't give her an honorable discharge," Hughes added. "Other single parents they've discharged got one. I'm glad they are letting her out, but now she lacks enough benefits … so it's going to be a hard situation for her."
Jeff Paterson, the director of the soldier advocacy group Courage to Resist, which has assisted Hutchinson, felt that the administrative discharge was a victory all around.
"From our perspective, since she didn't deploy to Afghanistan, she has no injuries; we see this as a big success," Paterson told Truthout. "She didn't go to Afghanistan, she didn't go to jail, she won't be separated from her baby and she gets out of the Army. That's what's important."
"I hoped she would have gotten a general discharge, but they seem to have had it out for her, so at least now she can move on," Sussman explained. "I've never heard of a commander taking a child away from a person in this situation. But I think it's a success, and we're very excited to hear that they decided not to go ahead with the criminal charges."
Base commanders at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Ga., where Hutchinson was assigned, said in a statement Thursday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, that an “investigation revealed evidence, from both other soldiers and from Pvt. Hutchinson herself, that she didn't intend to deploy to Afghanistan with her unit and deliberately sought ways out of the deployment."
Hutchinson chose not to speak to the media about the Army's decision.
The Army has regulations regarding parents who miss deployment due to childcare plans falling through. The regulations call for an extension of time to find alternate caregivers, and to discharge a parent honorably if no solution is found.
Of these regulations, Sussman wrote on Thursday: "Here, the Army did not act according to their own regulations, and did not value the family responsibilities of this soldier. If they had, Spc. Hutchinson would not have been in this situation and would be getting a better discharge."
Sussman told Truthout that she feels the way the Army handled Hutchinson's situation "shows that it takes a lot of work to get the military to understand what single parents in the military are facing. Up until last week they wanted to court-martial her for choosing her child over her job."
After Truthout reported that the Army had filed charges against Hutchinson, other media covered her situation, including several national outlets.
Speaking to Truthout about the role played by media coverage in Hutchinson's situation, Sussman said. "I think that it kept her from being sent to Afghanistan to face a court-martial back in November."
Brigadier General Jeffrey Phillips, Hutchinson's commander at the Hunter Army Airfield Military Reservation near Savannah, Georgia, made the recent decision to allow an administrative discharge for Hutchinson.
While both Sussman and Hutchinson are pleased with the Army's decision, Sussman feels that Hutchinson's plight does not send a positive message to parents - especially single parents - who plan on joining the US military today.
"Her situation shows the Army is not really friendly to families," Sussman told Truthout. "The lives of military families are very difficult and they often face a command that isn't understanding or empathetic towards the situation of raising a child in that environment."
Currently Hutchinson remains assigned to Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, where she has been posted since February 2008.
Hutchinson lives off post and places her son in day care when she goes to work.
Sussman told Truthout she believes Hutchinson should be discharged by the end of this month.

[49erfan]

im siding with her, my family comes first.


There's 10's of thousands of single parents in the military and you're telling us that we should cater to them? Everyone else should pick up the slack because they conveniently have child care issues? You're only "siding" with her because you're searching for an arguement.

[INGUARD]

Exactly. My family comes first and I been deployed twice and away from my family for other long durations. You sign the contract. You know what is expected. Family care plan is in place for a reason.

[ChicknIsGud]

Hmmmmm seems I wasn't clear. Let me rephrase.............

Thankfully you cleared that up...

[garhkal]

If i was the brass, i WOULD have pulled those people overseas, that way they COULD have martialed her butt. That way they show others like her, who are looking to do the same, that they will get punished. An if they did not want to lose them for X weeks, why did they not look into Video teleconferencing...

[ChicknIsGud]

Just like the chickenshit Army Capt who refused to deploy a couple of years ago, it was "easier" to let this one die a slow and mostly quiet death than to take people to task. The problem is the Army F'd this one up too and to take it to trial would have exposed their F-up. It is too bad an IG inquiry couldn't be done for the soldiers/supervisors who failed the troop, the leadership, the decision-makers etc. Lots of blame to go around on this one.

[Yggdrasil]

What's amusing to me is everyone trying to act like a hard ass by shouting out the punishments that she should have been given, or putting her down, etc.

We've got rapists and murderers in the military - MASS murderers even - and here we are worried about someone getting kicked out for not being able to deploy; there are people in the military getting kicked out everyday for not being able to comply with the Family Care Plan everday... and they're not getting OTH's either.

I know it's frustrating that someone isn't pulling their weight... but people, if you're going to let that consume you the way you are now, you're going to be leading pretty miserable lives. In EVERY society and organization, there are people who don't pull their weight. Let them de dealt with accordingly, and you just press on do what you've gotta do.

[MCGYVER]

Having an opinion does not equal being consumed (at least for most people).

[ChicknIsGud]

What's amusing to me is everyone trying to act like a hard ass by shouting out the punishments that she should have been given, or putting her down, etc.

We've got rapists and murderers in the military - MASS murderers even - and here we are worried about someone getting kicked out for not being able to deploy; there are people in the military getting kicked out everyday for not being able to comply with the Family Care Plan everday... and they're not getting OTH's either.

I know it's frustrating that someone isn't pulling their weight... but people, if you're going to let that consume you the way you are now, you're going to be leading pretty miserable lives. In EVERY society and organization, there are people who don't pull their weight. Let them de dealt with accordingly, and you just press on do what you've gotta do.

The difference is there are thousands of single parents or dual military parent households. Any of these households could use the same reasoning as the soldier who missed the movement. On the other hand there are not thousands of rapists/murderers - MASS murderers even (if there are, we have bigger problems to deal with). What happened with this soldier potentially sets a very difficult precedent. Our military can not operate if hundreds of soldiers let alone thousands elected to miss their movement as a result of a family care plan which fell apart. Add to this complicated situation the fact that this soldier was willing to get trained and paid for years and it was only after she had to do her part (deploy) did this difficulty surface.

The whole thing stinks on both sides of the equation. I for one have deployed in the past and will deploy in the future...but I also need to count on my brothers and sisters in arms to deploy when they are called upon.

[bb stacker]

so who should she have entrusted with the care of her child? if you just threw them to anyone so you could do your part could you ever live with yourself if something happened to them? would your mind be all in the mission or would you be worried about the care that they were receiving?

people on here crack me up, apparently only the most hardcore log sign up here...

[Yggdrasil]

Still, it doesn't matter - people are going to find ways to get out of deploying. She could have just gotten pregnant - like many women who are about to deploy do - and none of us would have even heard about it.

Also, I'm aware that there aren't "thousands" of rapists and murders in the military. But let's put things into perspective here:

- When a rapist rapes, you get a rape victim who is going to be mentally scarred.
- When a murderer murders, his or her victims dies. This multiplies with mass murderers.
- When someone is unable to deploy because of a child, all that happens is that people get mad that they have to deploy, and she doesn't.

Bear in mind, I'm not trying to mitigate how people feel on the matter; however, I'm just trying to provide the bigger picture here.

[MCGYVER]

bb stacker, you are missing the point that the mother giving the child back to her daughter was most likely a ploy to use as an excuse not to deploy. How many grandmothers do you know that would do some F'd up shit like that? Exaaaactly.

[acesfilter]

she knew she was going to deploy because she had a plan. that plan fell through. now i dont know about you but i dont trust my kids with just anyone. IMO they either should have swapped someone else into her place or delayed her reporting.

You are correct. And so, plan B was this. There are about 2,000 solutions for every 1,000 problems--granted that's a mere generalization. So while I can appreciate the point of swapping one for the other, she clearly wasn't going for that option even if someone had given that to her. I can imagine what her reaction would have been if her unit was to, say...go to the field for 3 weeks at a time.

[acesfilter]

Still, it doesn't matter - people are going to find ways to get out of deploying. She could have just gotten pregnant - like many women who are about to deploy do - and none of us would have even heard about it.

Also, I'm aware that there aren't "thousands" of rapists and murders in the military. But let's put things into perspective here:

- When a rapist rapes, you get a rape victim who is going to be mentally scarred.
- When a murderer murders, his or her victims dies. This multiplies with mass murderers.
- When someone is unable to deploy because of a child, all that happens is that people get mad that they have to deploy, and she doesn't.

Bear in mind, I'm not trying to mitigate how people feel on the matter; however, I'm just trying to provide the bigger picture here.

While I get that there's a "bigger picture" to consider (I.E. don't sweat the small stuff, etc), this analogy really has nothing to do with the article itself. It is what it is and a majority of active Soldiers feel generally the same way about it. In fact, this type of thing goes on every day really. They just happened to publish an article about this particular case.

At any rate, as someone pointed out a few posts back...something doesn't smell right when you read the story.

[ChicknIsGud]

so who should she have entrusted with the care of her child? if you just threw them to anyone so you could do your part could you ever live with yourself if something happened to them? would your mind be all in the mission or would you be worried about the care that they were receiving?

people on here crack me up, apparently only the most hardcore log sign up here...

If doing what I swore to do (keeping my word) makes me hardcore, then I'll accept that label. The fact is, I see myself as an everyday ordinary military member who believes that we are held to a higher standard. If I expect that of other military people, I had better darn well be willing to demonstrate it by example.

[Yggdrasil]

If doing what I swore to do (keeping my word) makes me hardcore, then I'll accept that label.

No, the "hardcore" label comes from how folks on this thread are talking about what "should have" been done to her, and that what she's getting now is too lenient, etc. Basically, a bunch of masses chanting for her to be burned at the stake.

I tell you what, it must really boost some people's ego to be given someone to look down on every now and then.

[JD2780]

Now this is off of not reading the ENTIRE article because of my ADD. She did have a family care plan, and her mom screwed her over by not pulling her weight right. Now I'm mil-mil, my wife is deployed and I go TDY every month for a week. The only way this is possible is because of a great support structure from my parents and my in-laws. Anybody bashing her mom? Nope, just her.

[TJMAC77SP]

Just like the chickenshit Army Capt who refused to deploy a couple of years ago, it was "easier" to let this one die a slow and mostly quiet death than to take people to task. The problem is the Army F'd this one up too and to take it to trial would have exposed their F-up. It is too bad an IG inquiry couldn't be done for the soldiers/supervisors who failed the troop, the leadership, the decision-makers etc. Lots of blame to go around on this one.

Last minute Conscientious Objector…………….single mom with failed Family Care Plan….

Yeah those are exactly alike.

Next !!!!

[TJMAC77SP]

Having an opinion does not equal being consumed (at least for most people).

Having an uninformed opinion is akin to ignorance though....(at least for the rationale among us)

[TJMAC77SP]

bb stacker, you are missing the point that the mother giving the child back to her daughter was most likely a ploy I missed that part of the article where the ploy was proven…..’exaaactly’
to use as an excuse not to deploy. How many grandmothers do you know that would do some F'd up shit like that? Exaaaactly.

[TJMAC77SP]

No, the "hardcore" label comes from how folks on this thread are talking about what "should have" been done to her, and that what she's getting now is too lenient, etc. Basically, a bunch of masses chanting for her to be burned at the stake.

I tell you what, it must really boost some people's ego to be given someone to look down on every now and then.

Actually the label (and I have a few of my own) is earned by stating 'facts' not known to any of the posters.....that is the very definition of ignorance. Granted ignorance is a right of forum posters.....as is calling them on it.

[ChicknIsGud]

Last minute Conscientious Objector…………….single mom with failed Family Care Plan….

Yeah those are exactly alike.

Next !!!!

Slightly confused Individual...the comparison wasn't between the CO and the single mother...it was how the military (mis)handled the situation. Do try to keep up. Try following your tagline advice...

[INGUARD]

Well my buddy knows of a Chief Warrant Officer that refused to deploy since her child was 7 months old and she was court martialed and put in the stockade. This one made a media frenzy and won.

[TJMAC77SP]

Slightly confused Individual...the comparison wasn't between the CO and the single mother...it was how the military (mis)handled the situation. Do try to keep up. Try following your tagline advice...

Yes I see your point.

[CORNELIUSSEON]

In the National Guard, things like this aren't so dramatic.

When my unit went out the door for Saudi Arabia in 1990, we had a few who showed up on the doorstep to plead their case. In all cases, they were immediately released from their Contract, shown the door, and told to not return. A report of their release was sent up the chain to DOD, so that the other organizations wouldn't have to go through this with these individuals. Otherwise, there was absolutely no publicity, no appeal, and no internal folderol. Why? Because - unlike the Regular Army - the National Guard has ALWAYS been a volunteer organization.

During the Draft Periods, our Rejects would get called up for Draft Service, but that had nothing to do with the Guard.

When you join the Guard, we make sure that you are informed from the start that your willing attendance is required, regardless of the circumstances, so you can't later say "I Didn't Sign Up For This!"

If you are having Custody issues, the time to bring them up was BEFORE deployment appeared on the horizon so that the Unit could do what it could to help you fix the problem.

Of course the question arises of how does the Guard deal with the holes left behind in the TO&E by these individuals? The answer is we put out a Call For Volunteers throughout the State, and when the TO&E is filled this way, the Unit is off to the races.

If there aren’t enough Guard volunteers, the Guard takes Individual Ready Reserve personnel who have volunteered through their organization. The point here is that the Guard refuses to beg people to deploy because we know that we can get others who are more faithful to take the non-deployers place in the TO&E.

[acesfilter]

I tell you what, it must really boost some people's ego to be given someone to look down on every now and then.

Of course. Like Randal stated in the movie Clerks: "It must feel so good to be right; there's nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?"

:D

[MCGYVER]

It must feel even better to knock someone for daring to have an opinion on a subject in these "opinion" forums. Wow! What a concept! People having opinions and expressing them? That's crazy talk. Get the straight jacket!

[TJMAC77SP]

Of course EVERYONE has the right to express an opinion. And…….this also applies to someone posting in opposition to another post right? Funny thing about free speech. It applies to all. Gets inconvenient at times

[MCGYVER]

I just find it ironic that people would come on here and criticize others for simply stating their opinions. Not just disagree with their points but criticize them for having an opinion. That blows me away. The audacity is befuddling.

[garhkal]

What's amusing to me is everyone trying to act like a hard ass by shouting out the punishments that she should have been given, or putting her down, etc.

We've got rapists and murderers in the military - MASS murderers even - and here we are worried about someone getting kicked out for not being able to deploy; there are people in the military getting kicked out everyday for not being able to comply with the Family Care Plan everday... and they're not getting OTH's either.
.

I am equally as vocal if not more so for those butt heads... Heck to me a murderer/rapist should not even be out in public let alone the military.


Well my buddy knows of a Chief Warrant Officer that refused to deploy since her child was 7 months old and she was court martialed and put in the stockade. This one made a media frenzy and won.

Precicely. I know OF (don't know personally) of three others who got booted with a BCD cause of doing this, but she raises a PR stink and gets away with it. THIS is why i am hot and heavy on her butt.