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Alexis Hutchinson
This is further proof that America hates its children. Why would women with children under 2 ever be separated from them in the first place? There’s no good reason for that. In fact, we should not even consider sending mothers with young children overseas to fight some damned imperialist war to enrich the corporate elite. This ongoing destruction of families is an outrage, not to mention the ongoing genocidal wars against the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, recent reports have exposed the huge number of rapes female soldiers have suffered often without recourse. I can’t for the life of me see why a woman would ever want to join this reactionary, sexist military. But then the propaganda machine and false recruitment promises play on the naivete of our sisters, no doubt. In any case, we must demand an end to this practice of deploying parents with no regard for the welfare of their/our children.
Sister Kiilu Nyasha
Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
By Dahr Jamail
Source: Inter Press Service
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23140
VENTURA, California, Nov 13 (IPS) – U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.
Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is currently being confined at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, after being arrested. Her son was placed into a county foster care system.
Hutchinson has been threatened with a court martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 15. She has been attempting to find someone to take care of her child, Kamani, while she is deployed overseas, but to no avail.
According to the family care plan of the U.S. Army, Hutchinson was allowed to fly to California and leave her son with her mother, Angelique Hughes of Oakland.
However, after a week of caring for the child, Hughes realized she was unable to care for Kamani along with her other duties of caring for a daughter with special needs, her ailing mother, and an ailing sister.
In late October, Angelique Hughes told Hutchinson and her commander that she would be unable to care for Kamani after all. The Army then gave Hutchinson an extension of time to allow her to find someone else to care for Kamani. Meanwhile, Hughes brought Kamani back to Georgia to be with his mother.
However, only a few days before Hutchinson’s original deployment date, she was told by the Army she would not get the time extension after all, and would have to deploy, despite not having found anyone to care for her child.
Faced with this choice, Hutchinson chose not to show up for her plane to Afghanistan. The military arrested her and placed her child in the county foster care system.
Currently, Hutchinson is scheduled to fly to Afghanistan on Sunday for a special court martial, where she then faces up to one year in jail.
Hutchinson’s civilian lawyer, Rai Sue Sussman, told IPS, “The core issue is that they are asking her to make an inhumane choice. She did not have a complete family care plan, meaning she did not find someone to provide long-term care for her child. She’s required to have a complete family care plan, and was told she’d have an extension, but then they changed it on her.”
Asked why she believes the military revoked Hutchinson’s extension, Sussman responded, “I think they didn’t believe her that she was unable to find someone to care for her infant. They think she’s just trying to get out of her deployment. But she’s just trying to find someone she can trust to take care of her baby.”
Hutchinson’s mother has flown to Georgia to retrieve the baby, but is overwhelmed and does not feel able to provide long-term care for the child.
According to Sussman, the soldier needs more time to find someone to care for her infant, but does not as yet have friends or family able to do so.
Sussman says Hutchinson told her, “It is outrageous that they would deploy a single mother without a complete and current family care plan. I would like to find someone I trust who can take care of my son, but I cannot force my family to do this. They are dealing with their own health issues.”
Sussman told IPS that the Army’s JAG attorney, Captain Ed Whitford, “told me they thought her chain of command thought she was trying to get out of her deployment by using her child as an excuse.” ‘
Major Gallagher, of Hutchinson’s unit, also told Sussman that he did not believe it was a real family crisis, and that Hutchinson’s “mother should have been able to take care of the baby”.
In addition, according to Sussman, a First Sergeant Gephart “told me he thought she [Hutchinson] was pulling her family care plan stuff to get out of her deployment”.
“To me it sounds completely bogus,” Sussman told IPS, “I think what they are actually going to do is have her spend her year deployment in Afghanistan, then court martial her back here upon her return. This would do irreparable harm to her child. I think they are doing this to punish her, because they think she is lying.”
Sussman explained that she believes the best possible outcome is for the Army to either give Hutchinson the extension they had said she would receive so that she can find someone to care for her infant, or barring this, to simply discharge her so she can take care of her child.
Nevertheless, Hutchinson is simply asking for the time extension to complete her family care plan, and not to be discharged.
“I’m outraged by this,” Sussman told IPS, “I’ve never gone to the media with a military client, but this situation is just completely over the top.”
here’s some local coverage of this incident
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7118010
You signed the line, now you do the time. Ain’t no have your cake and eat it too. Do your duty, Spec. Hutchinson. I do not feel sorry for you, we knew once we signed up we had to have atleast two people to watch our children if in the event we were deployed. Don’t be a reniger. Do your time! Never read the story, just know she’s been collecting pay checks from tax payers checks and didn’t complain before.
what a tough predicament to be in, because i know she probably wanted to join the military solely for the financial benefits, most likely in order to provide a better life for her son.
what a twisted world we live in when becoming a paid killer is one of the only viable options for financial self sufficiency for many youth in this country.
its akin to prostitution, in my view, because of the extreme coercion of the recruiters and lure of the money.
we are too busy killing people and destroying countries and ways of life to invest in education and opportunity and lack thereof is eating this generation.
@cherrylaldave
thelastnerve.com
heavymentalist.com
This is but one case, one example. Is it really that important, America, to take a mother from her child to go kill (potentially) other children? Where do these tactical acts of desperation through the Military-Industrial Complex end?
Damn Rob, for someone who is constantly talking about what these Jews and Europeans are doing to black people it sure does sound like you’ve drank a whole lot of thier kool-aid.
“Sign the line, Do the time” sounds like some slave serving his master to me.
If the child is 11 months and she is a specialist in the Army it’s obvious she had the child after she enlisted. So where does having someone to watch your child when you sign up come in.
Being someone who did sign the line and served my time I find this very disturbing.
The civlian lawyers and the media will get her out. But when you play with matches, what happens, Mr. 619. I served my country, as well, so I know what its about. There’s public welfare, corporate welfare, and then there’s “military welfare” – they are all draining the tax payers dollars. TIME FOR EVERYBODY TO COME HOME. If you’ve never served, you don’t understand what she’s doing UCMJ wise. She’ll get out of it, but this black girl opened up a can of worms, watch! And you are right, this war is about oil and protecting “Israel”. I just wish the Europeans (Romans) would wake up! If you served, you know she had a chance to get out when she had the baby and should have had atleast two guardians. I serve God, if you are not going to serve your country and just in it for the military welfare – THAT AIN’T PATRIOTISM.
Granted she did have the opprotunity to get out when she was pregnant, but then where would she be? Another single black mother struggling. Do we really need more of that? The mother of my child was also in and was deployed 6 months after her birth. Now luckily i wasnt at a unit that was deployable at the time and was able to care for my daughter during her two deploments and she took it like…….a solider…….but I do believe that there should be a time frame in which women should not be deployable with in the first 2 years of a childs life. Now not showing up for movement, i cant really get her back on that. Maybe she should have went about that part a little different.
That’s the same thing I’m saying. “She signed that line”. I can agree with the maturnity bonding period for perhaps the first two years too, but that ain’t the rules. I have a conscience, Mr. 619, I just know the rules. I see you know a little somethin’-somethin’ about the military, Mr. 619. “AIRBORNE!”
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America does not hate its children she signed up for the military its her responsibility to finish it, there is a contract.
I’m in the army and its a known fact everyone deploys she new that before she got pregnant I have no sympathy