Pregnancy in the military
Two articles in the Stars & Stripes today about women who are/were preggers. The first is about a woman who gave birth while she was deployed to Afghanistan. Apparently, she was given a pregnancy test thirty days before er deployment that came up negative. And she didn’t know she was pregnant until she went into labor;
Both mother and child, a boy, were immediately redeployed to Germany and are healthy, according to USAREUR spokesman Joe Garvey, who declined to name the soldier. The mother is assigned to the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, a helicopter unit based near Ansbach, that deployed units across Afghanistan this spring.
The second article is about a woman, before she was commissioned, discovered she was pregnant, but chose to hide it from her PMS. But now the Air Force has decided to boot her, because they don’t allow single parents on duty in their first term. From CNN;
Thirteen weeks into her pregnancy, she was sworn in by her father as a second lieutenant and started making plans to go to Virginia to begin her military service. Nearly six months into her pregnancy, she said, she told her new commanders that she was going to have a child, and they told her they didn’t think it would be a problem.
But they were wrong. Citing a contract she signed in 2007 when she enrolled in ROTC at age 18, the Air Force said she committed a fraud by not reporting a change in her medical condition, as indicated in the contract.
The Air Force ejected her, noting in its ruling, “It is not the responsibility of the staff to constantly remind you of the terms of your contract.”
It further stated that her file contained eight forms in which she was briefed on the medical change reporting requirement. Edmonds said no one ever brought the issue up during her subsequent counseling sessions while she was enrolled at Marquette.
I remember when I used to be a TAC NCO at Fort Bragg’s ROTC Advance Camp, they’d test women before their time at camp began and inevitably, one would pop positive on the test. And that would end their career in the military before it began. I also had females who worked for me at an HHC in Fort Drum who were single parents before they enlisted, but they gave custody to their parents for their first enlistment to qualify for service.
Of course, CNN is taking the side of social justice in their article, but the military is not the civilian world, as evidenced by the mother who gave birth in a war zone. How much did that baby cost the taxpayers, what with a flight to Germany? And someone needs to do that mother’s job now that she gone.
Category: Military issues
In three of the four deployments I have done since 2003 there has been at least one issue with either pregnancy or recent childbirth with a female where they either had to go home or their orders were cancelled just before we went to the MOB site. The only exception-when I was with an Armored Cav Regiment in 2004-05.
I can cut the lady in the first article some slack. Professional lab pregnancy tests are between 97% and 98% accurate, so the 30-day prior test could have missed it. And 30 days is a rather large window – IMO, too large. Asymptomatic pregnancies are also not particularly common, but are also not unknown.
The second lady? No slack. Looks to me like a deliberate attempt to hide a condition that she knew to be disqualifying for military service under USAF regs.
“but they gave custody to their parents for their first enlistment to qualify for service.” Maybe it’s just my dinosaurism (yes, just made the word up) but a woman who would do that just ain’t my idea of Mom.
When you knowingly violate your contract it really doesn’t matter in the slightest whether it’s with pregnancy or something else.
I have some sympathy for the gal who delivered (apparently unknowingly) and absolutely none for the other one. Friends have told me that any woman would know that she was pregnant, but I’m not sure I buy that, especially if it were a first one. But, I wouldn’t know.
Must agree with some of the commentors on the first article – there surely are more important issues for our concern.
The question you should ask is not what it cost the taxpayers, but how much danger is there for an newborn infant in a war zone?
It also happened with a British soldier in Camp Bastion:
“Acknowledgment of the birth comes weeks after a British soldier gave birth at at Camp Bastion in Helmand province. In that case, too, both soldier and command were reported not to have known about the pregnancy until labor began.
The British army, however, does not require a pregnancy test for female soldiers headed downrange, according to media reports, although the incident has prompted calls for such.”
For the first incident, like Hondo I can cut the mother some slack, but the second one is just wrong.
Had a single female in my shop deliberately get pregnant twice to avoid deployments, causing male troops to get shortfalled to fill her billet both times. I was one who got shortfalled, but I wanted to go anyway. She put one kid up for adoption; the child she decided to keep was born with some bad physical issues from being several weeks premature. She finally went reserve a couple years ago, so she is someone else’s turd now.
I agree with the AF’s sentiment on the second case; she should have read the fine print better. She seems to be trying to make herself into a martyr, trying to say the military told her to get an abortion which she couldnt do becasue of her Catholic beliefs. It would be interesting to see her lawyer try to present that argument. If she were that devout of a Catholic, wouldnt she have either gotten married and have been able to join, or simply kept her legs closed? And I am not bagging on Catholics, my mom’s whole family is mick Catholic so I am not just raving against them.
Will the Afghani government grant dual citizenship to the kid in the first story?
Never served with females onboard ship …
Don’t get me wrong .. I like women … wink wink ..
But I am glad I never had to lead under such possibly distracting circumstances.
Not a cop out … many fellow CMC’s male and female tend to have to deal with a myriad of issues …
@Moxie I can see it now, we’ll have to go to more sensitivity training because of this issue because we’ve become to PC and sensitive in the Air Force.
Been doing some fact checking about the USAF thin and it is very curious.
1. Only regs I can find via AF e-pubs clearly specify enlisting and enlistment eligilbility codes. Officers don’t enlist they serve indef.
2. Also in my last role as an addtional duty first shirt, I can tell you there are lots of single parents in the military, thats why they have to have family care plans.
Where I think they are getting her is the not reporting change in medical satus as required. The questions in my mind is: when was she commissioned? when did she find out she was expecting? If she learned prior to commissioning and didn’t report then yes she is in the wrong. If it was after then they can’t hold her accountable for not reporting when she didn’t know. Its hard to know with out all the facts.
This also depends on the lag time between finding out and commissioning. Over all the handling at first glance the handling of this case appears skectchy, was it days, weeks, or months between finding out and commissioning? If it was a matter of days/less than 4 weeks then someone is going a little overboard in my humble opinion. Example did she find out Tuesday and was commissioning on Friday? or find out Tuesday and commissioning the following week? Its hard to know with out all the facts. Not going to Monday quarterback the decision to kick out, just the reporting, HOWEVER I will say this is a potential PR nightmare.
Also, not to pick nits but she’s an educated person and should know how to prevent such things and while accidents happen, why chance it, especially when your so close?
-Ish
Okay, unless you’ve had a 9-pound fetus sitting on your bladder and kicking you in the kidneys for several months, you should keep your opinions for man dates. 🙂
Here’s the hornet’s nest: Single men or women with, or capable of having, children should not be allowed to serve in the military.
We have a pregnancy float of thousands of non-deployable females who cannot do the job they’ve trained, and we’ve paid them and are paying them to do…. with an astounding cost.
Excepting those wounded, anyone non-deployable should be kicked out. Those whose non-deployability results from wounds or injuries involuntarily sustained in a deployed status should be allowed to remain in until retirement, all other abilities and duty performance being equal.
Anyone voluntarily non-deployable… pregnant, for example, should get a less than honorable discharge with no benefits and be required to pay the military back for their training costs.
All of them.
Just sayin’.
If I ever had a 9-pound fetus sitting on my bladder I would be a very rich man. I was a single parent in the Army. If an Infantryman can be a single parent than why can’t someone in the Air Force? That is what a family care plan is for. I do know that the Army will chapter you if your family care plan fails though.
@ EX-PH2 … Rog that! I suspected my comments could attract scorn from my sisters here, but it was the truth as I see it.
Note I did not mention combat effectiveness issues … that is another issue …
Nobody wins when a pregancy interrupts operations.
BTW … how the hell can you NOT know your pregnant. I can tell you, every time I get screwed at work, I know it!
Hinton, no birth control is 100% effective. Are you advocating females should abstain from sexual activity the entire time they are enlisted? Now if they purposely got preggers to avoid deployment that is a whole nother can of worms.
Did I just hear FAMILY CARE PLAN? … Thank you!
I have been a supervisor to an individual who is a single parent to two children (half siblings, separate fathers). She would work her ass off every day and not let her being a single mother status interfere with being in the military. She had everything planned out for when she would be deployed and a good example that it does work. But many take it for granted or lie about it when it happens and the rest of us have to suffer for it.
@ 16 BAM. Our IT sup here cares for 2 special needs kids … same deal. Never an issue!
You sure did, MCPO. I know mine was a pain in the ass to get for the simple fact that I was the only single father in an active duty Infantry Brigade and nobody seemed to know how to make one. Running around trying to figure it out on my own withing the 30 days alloted with only one 30 day extension allowed before chapter. I think I worked with every Soldier working at JAG to get it figured out. I’m glad I went through the ass pain because after that more single parents got assigned and no matter which unit in Brigade they where in they got sent to me for help.
I agree with Hondo, pregnancy tests are not 100% accurate and there have been quite a few cases of women not knowing they were pregnant until they gave birth, even mothers with previous children. I was never so fortunately, I had every symptom and felt every pain.
In the second case however, she knowingly violated regs, even after 8 medical briefings. Erin at Aim High Erin has an excellent analysis of the situation:
http://www.aimhigherin.com/2012/10/parenting-and-privilege.html
and being pregnant herself, she’s intimately familiar with the regs.
@ #9 – While in ROTC she was enlisted under Inactive Reserve status. If she was a 4yr scholarship type then she was enlisted all 4 years of college. If she was a regular entry cadet, then she was enlisted her junior and senior years… she knew the regs and tried to flaunt the rules.
I know an NCO who signed over her kid to her mom so she could do initial enlistment. Not sure when custody reverted, but she manages to balance being a single mom and being an NCO (full-time Guard, so not much moving around) very well.
I think the problem here as well over at CNN’s FB page is some are confusing someone who gets pregnant prior to joining the military and someone who is pregnant after being enlisted. Ms. Edmonds violated two DoD regulations that have been in place for a long time. The first is maintaining a medical readiness prior to inductment, appointment or enlistment as listed in this DoD Regulation here: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/613003p.pdf The other is just a basic suitability requirements for inductment, appointment or enlistment in the military as listed in this regulation: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/130426p.pdf The no dependancy clause has been there since at least WW2, because the bleeding hearts didn’t want to orphan any children with military service. So if you were a single parent even in the 1940’s you were declared unfit for military service then even if you were a modern day Captain Steve Rodgers. Got to think of the children So even if she found out the day before or the day of her commissioning, she violated two regulations and ergo is in the wrong no matter what, IMHO. She knew what the regulations were because most of my former Divison and Department Head (Platoon and COmpany Commanders for you Army types) who went to teach/lead at ROTC for a while; explained they were told to constantly pull the women aside for either quarterly or monthly “Don’t be Stupid, no one DOR’s on thier last week of training” training about everything from crime to pregnancy. Yet, they still screw it up and the same for the men. I happened to go to CNN’s FB page and to thier story page on the intertubes and the commentary from the bleed hearts just boils down to stupid. It is either discriminatory policy because it appears to only hit women (at least in the commentator’s view) or as I noted opening this comment, they believe that since thier Friend’s Brother’s Sister who is single and has a kid was able to deploy with a family care plan something is wrong here. No one is viewing this as this lady basically robbed the tax… Read more »
I am wondering how the first woman didn’t know she was pregnant until she went into labor. Did she think she just has a tapeworm that was causing her lower abdomen to distend to the size of a watermelon?
@ #8, Whitey_wingnut:
How about shoulder cords for SHARP?
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123322483
What about the teal ropes?
Flagwaver, there are many instances in pregnancy that do not make your belly protrude like a beer barrel, even if you’ve had multiple births. Not everybody gets morning sickness, either. That’s caused by hormonal changes. Not every woman stops menstruating, either. And isn’t clothing worn in a combat zone mostly loose, instead of form-fitting?
If you’re physically active in an environment that involves heavy duty physical activity like lifting loads, carrying loads, distance hikes carrying a load, you’re less likely to gain weight and show a growing fetus than you are if you’re sitting at a desk watching a computer monitor. If you’re in an area that has extreme temperature shifts, like Afghanistan, the heat that you experience from hormonal changes may just feel really good. And an increased appetite in a combat zone may be alluded to a heavier physical workload.
If you think that hormonal shifts won’t keep you warm in seriously cold weather, think again. When I stopped taking HRT for menopause, I started getting heat waves. In the middle of winter, in a heavy wool coat, I was at the bus stop with my coat open, enjoying the 10 degree cold and the brisk winter breeze. Same thing can happen when you’re pregnant.
You guys all need to spend some time in the company of a very large group of pregnant women. The more you know, the better. We ladies all want to take the mystery out of it for you.
There was a female volleyball player who recently found out after the Olympics she was pregnant the whole time during.
@27 — My point exactly.
There is a whole tv series about women who were pregnant and not knowing it on The Reality…I Mean The Learning Channel.
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/i-didnt-know-i-was-pregnant
So it happens with a nice precentage of the population.
Before we deployed, we had six or seven women attached to our FSC at the battlion level.
All but one failed pregnancy tests in the month or so before we deployed.
Ironically, only two had given birth upon our return.
You cannot go on active duty if you are a single parent. Period. You can go reserves with a current family care plan if that FCP is approved by the unit you are joining.
Ex-PH2 @26; so it is possible for a woman to be pregnant, yet still have her periods!?
Wowsers. Learn something new every day.
Why is CNN tackling this as a “Social Justice” issue?
The women violated the terms of their contract, which, after the dirty deeds done to the stockholders and stakeholders in Government Motors Corps (with the exception of the unions) is obviously meaningless in America.
If contract law is impotent, then what are the limits on anything? Default on your mortgage, loot your neighbor’s home after his house is foreclosed.
There’s also the need to rewrite the definition of marriage. If a single woman or man has a child s/he is solely responsible for during their first term of service, and they are not kicked out – it redefines the privilige of family in the military.
If the privilige of having a family is redefined, the who is changed: from heterosexual parent to homosexual parent.
And if a gay person can be a parent, can’t they also be a spouse?
See #30.
The lack of births was not due to complications…
They used another form of birth control to avoid deployment.
Not making an argument or picking a fight, but facts are facts.
The percentages do not lie.
Combining this post with the one about women in combat arms… I’m sure that the Taliban (or whoever) would be glad to suspend a firefight in progress until after the servicewoman on patrol finishes breastfeeding.