Army Soldier to be Discharged.

[Nidaros]

I read I think in the Fargo Forum a syndicated story about a women soldier who had served a tour already in Iraq, or was it Afgan, and was subsequently discharged from active duty, but was put into the ready reserve as part of her commitment that she agreed to when she signed up after 9/11. She met her husband in the miltary and she bore two children since being discharged. Now she got orders to report for active duty. Her husband travels for his job and his employer would not release him from travel duties in order to care for the children in their mother's absence. Both sets of grandparents are away from Georgia where the couple lives and could not provide care either. So the soldier had no choice but to report to Fort Benning, I believe with two children. Just heard on CNN, that the Army has decided to give her a discharge. Good thinking US ARMY.

Decades ago, this would not be a problem when women who served were required to be single and would be discharged if they became pregnant. Now with the new Army, there are all sorts of new situations, that need to be solved using good old fashion common sense.

[sdbballfan]

Re: Army Soldier to be Discharged.

....... there are all sorts of new situations, that need to be solved using good old fashion common sense.

Which isn't common anymore.

[UTH]

Re: Army Soldier to be Discharged.

The 'simple' solution, which seems to be what happened here, is normally to file for a hardship, cross fingers, and hope that the Army will respect a soldier's other obligations in life. When filed for business reasons, the success rate seems to have been a bit low. When filed for medical or family reasons, the Army doesn't have much space to be stubborn. If a medical condition prevents a soldier from executing his duties properly or safely, what can they do?

Also, there need to be certain safeguards for the family if a soldier is deployed or otherwise called to duty for a prolonged period of time. For example, guardmembers with children need to provide their units with a 'family care plan', which plans out what they will do with the children if one, or both, of the parents are deployed. Say - mom and pop live in North Dakota and have a litter of five or so. Mom's parents live in South Dakota and are too sick or otherwise unable to care for the kids. Pop's parents are dead. They have no other family / friends anywhere because they just moved there from Germany or something, so they're essentially stuck / in a pickle. No reasonable 'family care plan' can be put together, so at least one parent gets to stay home.

In the story that Nidaros posted, the husband isn't able to care for the kids all the time because his civilian job puts him on the road quite a bit and the military can't tell a civilian what to do - actually, that would seriously suck if it could. Since nothing can be done to solve the problem, mom gets to go home to care for the kids. Good for her.

Personally, I've seen it work out this way a couple times. In one, the soldier that was to be deployed really WANTED to go, but it didn't work out.

I've seen a handful of hardship applications for business / money reasons, but I've never seen one work out for the applicant. If anyone around here has, I'd love to hear the story.

I think pretty much every military member around here knows a few people who have been medically discharged or been deemed nondeployable, at least for that point in time. Things I've seen for this - heart murmurs, diabetes, bad back, pregnancy(always works), bad shoulder, and high blood pressure come to mind...

[Nidaros]

Re: Army Soldier to be Discharged.

Thanks UTH. I am sure the ARMY has to look out for their interests as well and I suspect that is why the end up looking like the goat some times. Sorry I believe the goat is the US Naval Academy's mascot. Substitute fool for goat.
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