Colo. Woman Declared AWOL After Complying With Judge's Custodial Order

[BurtWorm]

http://www.talkleft.com/

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~6439~1739367,00.html


A Colorado woman i faces punishment for refusing Iraq duty to avoid losing custody of children.

Simone Holcomb and her husband of three years, Vaughn Holcomb, also a soldier, were both sent to Iraq early this year. The children's paternal grandmother came from Ohio to look after them.

Then an ex-wife came along and sued for custoday. The Holcombs came home on emergency leave....

A judge in a custodial hearing mandated that one of the parents must stay home to look after the children in order for Vaughn to retain full custody of the two. ....Vaughn, 40, went back to Iraq. Simone, 30, stayed - without the Army's permission. Now she faces dismissal and even jail time.

"I was told by the Army ... to get on a plane," Simone said Saturday night. "I even told them it was unlawful and they said 'I don't care, get on a plane.' It's against the law for me to abandon my children. I can no sooner walk out on my children than I can rob a bank just because the Army told me to."

Simone is being treated as an AWOL.
MORE...

[nickgutierrez]

1. YAY ARMY!!!

"Forget about your children, go kill someone else's..."

[JackSwift]

2. She should transfer to another unit

and never show up.

[Fridays Child]

3. It worked for crusader bunnypants but...

...something tells me she ain't no senator's daughter.

[Ediacara]

4. this is insane!

there are no words I can find to describe how fucked up this is!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. Umm, at the risk of being politically incorrect,

is it really a good idea for both parents of young children to be active-duty military?

But while the Holcombs were absent, Vaughn's ex-wife filed for child support and was threatening to seek full custody of two of the Holcombs' seven children, who range in age from 4 to 12.

The ex-spouse, who is the biological mother of the two children, was granted temporary joint custody with the grandmother.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~6439~1739367,00.html

Seven kids and they are both over in Iraq while Grandma watches the kids?

Umm, it is just possible the biological mother of these 2 kids maybe should have custody of them.

[sandnsea]

8. Stateside Duty?

I don't even want to get into the custody part of this, but I was upset last year when they first started sending both parents overseas. It's wrong and it can't possibly be necessary. It's where I think the women's movement went awry. Instead of mothering (parenting) seen as valuable in and of itself, women gained their value only from work, or being 'as good as' a man. If women were valued as mothers, parenting would be valued, and the Army would be accommodating these kids and letting one of the parents stay home.

[spooky3]

12. Please don't blame the women's movement when the

responsibility lies with the Army, who constructed this policy. There is no reason why the Army can't write a sexism-free policy allowing one parent to stay stateside with the kids. However, I also agree with the poster who raised the question about whether it is wise for parents with 7 children to both enlist and insist on custody. It may well be in this situation that the children are best off with their mother. On the other hand it may not be. We just don't have many facts.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

10. Umm, at the risk of being even more politically incorrect,

is it really a good idea for a carbon-based lifeform to be active-duty military?

[OldSoldier]

13. It's time to really be politically incorrect

The biggest problems I ever had in the military were childed dual-military couples like the Holcombs, and single mothers.

When your first sergeant tells you, "your platoon contains sixteen soldiers, plus yourself and the lieutenant. Three of them are single mothers and six are dual-military couples, and two of the dual-military couples have children," the first thing you do is ask for a better job, like pumping out the grease trap in the mess hall. Sixteen soldiers minus seven essentially-undeployable soldiers means you have too few soldiers to go to war. Then the punch line: "The 10th Mountain Division deploys in 18 hours from initial alert."

I read the Family Care Plans they were required to submit. I was about to tell you about them, but recalling that story was just too painful. (The most workable one required leaving three children with another dual-military couple--the husband was an infantry first sergeant, the wife the signal battalion motor sergeant; in the military, we call them "critical personnel." The least workable one required leaving two children with the soldier's mother, who had died before the soldier enlisted.)

If you write me in as president, I promise to move all the single parents and one-half of all dual-military childed couples from the military to civil service. You can't fight a war when half of your troops are undeployable because of kids.

[Kinkistyle]

6. Welcome to the Middle Ages

Bow down Legionnaire and declare your fealty to our Emperor Commodus!

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Ok here is what you all do

WRITE those Congress Critters in particular if yours happens to be
a member of the Armed Services Committee.

I have

Sent

[izzie]

9. Catch22

n/t

[KaraokeKarlton]

11. Start sending e-mails to Dean's campaign

He will be all over this like flies on a cow patty. Whether you support him or not...when Dean talks, the whole country pays attention. If you want the press all over this story and to force Bush to help this woman, ask Dean to start talking about this.

[MrPrax]

14. What a great thread!!

I went one way and then the other and BACK again...

Talk show producers should grab this topic...it really gives the 'grey matter' a work out...