Single mother and Army cook Spc. Alexis Hutchinson was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan along with her unit on Nov. 5. Instead, she is under arrest and confined to an Army base in Savannah, Ga., because she chose to skip her flight in order to care for her infant son.
Hutchinson's case has all the marks of a bureaucratic oversight. Kevin Larson, a spokesman for Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, told the Associated Press that the Army would not deploy a single parent who had no one else to look after his or her child, and Army policy requires single-parent soldiers to submit a care plan for their dependent children before they can deploy to a combat zone.
Hutchinson, 21, had submitted such a plan, naming her mother, Angelique Hughes, as the care provider. Hughes kept the son, 10-month-old Kamani, for two weeks in October before deciding that she could not handle him for a full year. Hughes already looks after an ailing mother and sister and a daughter with special needs while operating a daycare center with 14 children out of her home in Hutchinson's home town of Oakland, Calif.
"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."
Hughes returned the child to Hutchinson a few days before her scheduled deployment on Nov. 5. She said the family told Hutchinson's commanders that they needed more time to find another caregiver for Kamani, but the commanders ordered her to deploy as scheduled on Nov. 5. Instead, Hutchinson was arrested and jailed overnight on Nov. 7 after failing to report for her deployment flight. She remains confined to Hunter Army Airfield while military officials investigate the matter. So far, no charges have been filed against Hutchinson.
Kamani was picked up by Hughes after being briefly placed in custody of a childcare provider on the Army base and is now back in California.
"I don't know what transpired and the investigation will get to the bottom of it," Larson said. "If she would have come to the deployment terminal with her child, there's no question she would not have been deployed." Hutchinson's deployment has been halted while the situation remains under investigation.
Written by Sandy Smith
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