Alexis Hutchinson was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan on November 5th, but refused to leave because she was afraid that her 10 month old son Kamani would have been put into foster care. Normally, single parent soldiers are told to have a plan in place for alternative care in the case of deployment, but Hutchinson’s plan was for her mother to take care of her son. Angelique Hughes had originally agreed to take care of the child, then reneged on the deal after finding that she was unable to comply.
“This is an infant, and they require 24-hour care,” Hughes said. “It was very, very stressful, just too much for me to deal with.” She runs a daycare center at home, and also takes care of her own mother and sister, who are ill, and another child with special needs. With no further involvement with the father, Hutchinson felt that she had no options in place, so refused to take her deployment flight. She was arrested and remains in Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, awaiting an investigation.
Kevin Larson, spokesman for Hunter Army Airfield, feels that Hutchinson was given misleading information. “If she would have come to the deployment terminal with her child, there’s no question she would not have been deployed,” he states.
This is a sad case of misinformation and fears run amuck. It will no doubt be resolved before too long, but one can imagine the desperation felt by Hutchinson as she faced her first deployment ever, with no one to take care of her only child. Never let it be said that the military is an organization that cares only for the blood and sweat of its troops; clearly, they value the bonds of parenthood as well.
