Soldier Mom Refuses Deployment to Care for Baby

November 18, 2009 by Cathy Ribble
Filed under: News

Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, 21, is a single mom and a U.S. Army cook who felt she had no choice but to refuse deployment orders in order to take care of her 10-month-old son.

The U.S. Army requires that single-parent soldiers submit a care plan for any dependent children before they can be deployed to a combat zone. Spc. Hutchinson planned to leave her baby with her mother, Angelique Hughes of California. Hughes cared for the baby for two weeks in October before she decided she could not keep him for a full year. Hughes already cares for her mother and sister with health problems, and a daughter with special needs. She also operates a daycare center at her home, keeping 14 children during the day.

The baby was returned to Spc. Hutchinson just a few days before she was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan.

Rai Sue Sussman, civilian attorney for Spc. Hutchinson, told reporters that one of her client’s superiors told her she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care.

“For her it was like, ‘I couldn’t abandon my child,’” Sussman said. “She was really afraid of what would happen, that if she showed up they would send her to Afghanistan anyway and put her son with child protective services.”

Hutchinson is presently confined to the boundaries of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, 10 days after military police arrested her for skipping her unit’s flight. The matter is under investigation, and no formal charges have been filed at this time.

“I don’t know what transpired and the investigation will get to the bottom of it,” said Kevin Larson, spokesman for Hunter Army Airfield. “If she would have come to the deployment terminal with her child, there’s no question she would not have been deployed.”

Spc. Hutchinson’s 10-month-old son, Kamani, was placed in custody overnight with a daycare provider on the Army post when she was arrested and jailed. Hutchinson’s mother has since picked up the child and taken him back to her home in California.

For now the deployment has been halted while the investigation continues.

In my book, this soldier mom has shown great courage in the face of an impossible situation. Perhaps all the media coverage of this incident will result in some additional support for this young soldier.

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Tags: Afghanistan, Alexis Hutchinson, army, California, Child Protective Services, civilian attorney for Spc, Hunter Army Airfield, Kamani, Kevin Larson, media coverage, Rai Sue Sussman, spokesman, the Army post, United States, United States Army

Comments

One Comment on "Soldier Mom Refuses Deployment to Care for Baby"

Alisha Clark on Mon, 18th Jan 2010 6:58 pm

I have read the story about Spc Hutchinson from HAAF. I am currently a soldier deployed to Iraq out of Ft. Stewart, GA. This is my second deployment and for the last deployment I was a single mother. I left my son when he was 4 monthes old, and now he is 2. I understand what it feels like to leave my child. In her situation, which unless you are in the military you know nothing about, along with having a family care plan you must sit down with the commander of your unit and go over it. He explains all the details and so forth. I am also a SPC in the army and I know that if at anytime my son can not be cared for by the person i designate, the army will send me home and give me 30 days to find an alternate solution before i will be seperated from the military. As a soldier if an NCO was telling her something she didnt like, she should have went and used her chain of command. Every soldier has this instilled in them from the time they come into the army, this isnt a new thing. I do not feel bad for this soldier. I think she poorly went about the situation and used her child to not deploy. If this was an issue that she wanted to fight she could have done it the right way. As a mom, and as a soldier I know I must do whats best for my child and whats best for me to be able to support my child. At any point this SPC could have gotten out of the army for her family care plan. To me this makes single mothers in the army look bad. I feel that she should be punished because this would not be fair to the rest of us mothers and fathers that do have to be away from their child and are doing the right thing, which is what they raised their right hand to do. I hope the best for her child and her but I hope there will be some kind of consequence for how she has made the army look and how she did not follow orders by using her chain of command.

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