Soldier Mom Risks Punishment to Stay Home and Keep Custody of Children

[tnitsuj]

from usatoday.com

Rough situation....I don't know but seems that a hardship discharge would be in order here.

 

[kage69]

I second that.

 

[burnedout]

Yeah, the chain of command should chapter her out and be done with it.

 

[Witling]

There's no indication that the woman has applied for a hardship discharge. I think the situation is adequately summed up by this paragraph from the article,

"We want them to put her back on duty at Fort Carson, like before," Bearer said. "Let her do her service there where she could still be with the children."

I'd like to see how the army would work if it started trying to comply with what 200,000 soldiers wanted. I mean, when you join the service, most people think that they'll move around at the service's convenience.

I want to end by saying again, there is no indication that this woman has applied for a hardship discharge.

 

[UltraQuiet]

My question is why isn't the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act being used to to protect her from this custody battle?

 

[burnedout]

My question is why isn't the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act being used to to protect her from this custody battle?

Welcome back, UQ. You pose an excellent question about this act that didn't occur to me until now. You are absolutely correct and I am wrong. In theory, both parents should be afforded protection under the SSCRA.

SSCRA

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: Ultra Quiet
My question is why isn't the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act being used to to protect her from this custody battle?

Never heard of that before, from the link I see it says something about civil court actions. What would using the SSRA do for her?

KK

 

[HappyPuppy]

The article makes no mention of her requesting a Compassionate Reassignment, either. On the surface her problem seems to arise from not going through the proper channels.

 

[Witling]

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Relief Act is an interesting question. I don't want to do the research on this but a number of things occur to me. The father obviously participated in a divorce in one capacity or another. This may be a continuing jurisdiction type thing. Second, the action may have been started before the woman was activated and the husband may have consented to jurisdiction. Third (and I'm stretching here) the action may theoretically affect only the children and no "judgment" will be entered against the service members.

I'm not interested enough to look this up but congratulations to Ultra Quiet for raising the issue.

 

[UltraQuiet]

The SSCRA is designed to protect deployed servicemen (and women) from these kind of legal actions while they are unable to defend themselves. Whether it applies in this specific situation is something for lawyers to decide not some old stupid Chief.


There also seems to be more to this story than being reported by our sensationalist press corp. The woman is the step-mother. When she was deployed (along with her husband) one of the grandmother's came to take care of the children. The children's biological mother (when she found out about it) was not happy about it and filed suit for custody. The judge granted her temporary custody until either of the other two parents returned from Iraq. It seems that was unacceptable to the step-mom and that's when she went AWOL.

IMO the Army rightfully oredered her back to duty and she should comply or face the consequences.

 

[Witling]

Ultra, it may not have been a "stupid chief" that made the decision. It may well be a "smart chief." However, as an aside, "chief" is a navy rating, not an army rating as far as I know.

 

[UltraQuiet]

Originally posted by: Whitling
Ultra, it may not have been a "stupid chief" that made the decision. It may well be a "smart chief." However, as an aside, "chief" is a navy rating, not an army rating as far as I know.

I was referring to myself, not anyone in the Army.

 

[UltraQuiet]

An update:

(CNN) -- The Army is recalling a mother from duty in Iraq and reassigning her to her National Guard unit in Colorado to allow her more time to deal with a custody dispute.

CNN