Op-Ed: Army Dischargee Reported for Duty With Two Kids in Tow

Too frequently the U.S. military does things that are so senseless it makes one wonder that they ever win a battle, let alone a war. But then, they haven’t won a war since WWII, unless kicking Iraq out of Kuwait in the 1990-91 Gulf War counts.

Case in point is Lisa Pagan, who was honorably discharged from the Army in 2005. She was ordered back to active duty and has since file several appeals that were all denied. Enjoying her life as a stay-at-home mom to son Eric and daughter Elizabeth, while her husband is on the road much of the time as a salesman, Pagan told the army she has no one to mind the children.

I guess they'll have to contact the highest person at the base, and they'll have to decide from there what to do," Pagan said. "I either report and bring the children with me or don't report and face dishonorable discharge and possibly being arrested. I guess I'll just have to make my case while I'm there."

Master Sgt. Keith O'Donnell, an Army spokesman, said the commander at Fort Benning (Georgia) will decide how to handle the situation.

"The Army tries to look at the whole picture and they definitely don't want to do anything that jeopardizes the family or jeopardizes the children," O'Donnell said. "At the same time, these are individuals who made obligations and commitments to the country."

Pagan is not alone in being called back. Thousands of uniformed service members have left active duty, and have been recalled to active duty. They aren’t receiving a salary or actively training, but if they have time left on their original enlistment contracts, their ready reserve status remain in tact and they can be recalled. O’Donnell said approximately 1,000 of those recalled have not reported for duty, and

while 360 soldiers have been separated from the Army either through "other than honorable" discharges or general discharges…

He said:

Pagan isn't likely to face charges, considering none of the individual ready reserve soldiers who have failed to report faced a court-martial.

Tom Tarantino, a policy maker with the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, that assists veterans, said the Army has taken a hard line on many of these cases. Tarantino told the Charolette Observer:

Usually, the only way that someone can get out of the deployment or get out of the military due to a family hardship is if they get into a situation where the kids will be put into foster care.

“That's how serious it has to be, and I'm sure what the military is telling her – and I'm not saying that this is exactly the right answer – but the fact that it is inconvenient for her husband's job is not the military's problem. It's very harsh.”

Fighting hardship pleas pales in comparison to the money the Pentagon wastes on no-bid contracts, millions of dollars vanishing down the Iraq rat hole, past scandalously outrageously priced toilet seats purchased by the Air Force, and paying private contractors a hundred time more to do what soldiers could be doing. This is just more proof that the Pentagon needs oversight and overhauling, and is one more example of how they waste tax payer money on silliness and don’t think anything through before taking action. The matter of Pagan not being able to serve again should have and could have been resolved dispensed with after a brief investigation, rather than taking a hard line and making it into a national story that makes them look like the inept bureaucrats that they are. The figures by Global Research from 2007, and the most recent figures posted by CNN, show that there are close to a million G.I.s stationed at 1,000 bases around the world with the highest numbers being in Europe, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Iraq, Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Maybe it’s time for some reshuffling. If the Army is so hard up for warm bodies, and will go to such lengths to get them back after they have honorably served, then the military is in far worse shape than anyone realizes.