Good Ol’ Family Values U.S.A. Ordered a Single Mom to Abandon Her Baby

Remember how appalled I was when I first came across the Bethany Smith case?  I won’t rehash her story now but you can read about it here.

Well, somehow, I must have missed this shocker when it first came out last November. Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, an army cook and single mother of a 10-month-old baby boy faced criminal charges because she skipped her deployment  flight to Afghanistan. The reason she skipped? No, not for the usual reasons one might think of.  She had no one to care for her baby while overseas.   It would seem that in the past, her mother could have cared for the baby, but now strapped to care for unhealthy relatives, caring for the baby proved too much for her. So Hutchinson was unfortunately left with no one to care for the baby. When she had brought up her predicament to her superiors, they were less than sympathetic to put it mildly; they told her to deploy anyway and  put the baby in foster care!! Yep, that’s right!  Her country that preaches good ol’ fashioned family values basically told her to abandon her own baby so she can go fight Georgie’s useless war or rather, cook for the troops fighting the senseless war. She chose her baby over  the war.  What a terrible woman she is, indeed!  After so obviously hearing that army superior basically ordering her to put her child at the mercy of social services to be raised by strangers who may only be in it for the monthly stipend and not for altruistic reasons, who can fault Hutchinson for just being a mom? This Army superior obviously didn’t wonder as to how effective she would be overseas if she is constantly worrying about her baby being in parts unknown?

With the need for soldiers more than ever, one would think the U.S. military would be more accommodating to other single parents and their children with no relatives or friends to help out with them. Apparently, the army does require single parents to file family care plans months before deployment and Hutchinson used a two week leave to take her young son to her mom’s in Oakland, CA, but after a few days, the task simply proved too overwhelming for her. According to her mom, Hutchinson did call her company commander and a 30 day extension was granted in order for her to try to find alternative care for her baby. However, that extension was never to happen because when she returned to her base, a day after she was supposed to have deployed, she was arrested.

Her superior, Major Anthony A. Cucolo III, was apparently engaging in other terrible acts of discrimination against soldiers who got pregnant as well as their partners/spouses. Wow, what a miserable piece of werk he is. Hands up those who want to bet that this winner is a prolifer fetus fetushist?

She never did face that court martial, however,

On Thursday, Specialist Hutchinson received an other-than-honorable discharge, ending an impasse that had surprised many legal experts and spurred lively debate in military circles.

In a news release, the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., said Specialist Hutchinson’s rank had been reduced to private and that she would lose some Army and veterans’ benefits.

Other than Honorable discharge?  Demoted and reduced benefits? Wow, small comfort.  Don’t get me wrong, she could have ended up in jail and lost her young son forever, but she  shouldn’t even have to face any sanctions whatsoever for doing what most parents do; putting their child above everything else.

I wonder if these discriminatory activities happen in the Canadian military? Odds are with Stevie and his evangelical ministers at the helm (groan!), it probably does happen just as often as in the U.S. and when I hear stories like Hutchinson’s or Bethany Smith’s I have to wonder if  all are  not facing discrimination in our military; especially with secretive sneaky Stevie.

Well, this should bring much needed recruitment down.