Martha McSally: Women in the military get pregnant to "skirt" deployment

[jmowreader]

29. Apparently they don't have FCPs in the Air Force

FCP means Family Care Plan. If you have children, but don't have a non-military spouse (single soldiers and dual-military couples fall into this), you must declare a temporary guardian, a long-term caregiver, and an escort to transport the kids from the temporary guardian to the long-term caregiver on DA Form 5305. These people must have powers of attorney over your kids (DA Form 5841) and must sign forms (DA Form 5840) stating they know and will accept the duties of their office. There is a lot of other paperwork that goes into a FCP packet - a completed one on a family with three children is about a quarter-inch thick if none of the children are in the Exceptional Family Member Program, the Army's name for its services for special-needs children. EFMP FCPs get thick in a right hurry.

Failure to maintain a workable FCP is grounds for getting kicked out of the Army, and I know of commanders who would throw your ass into the street in a New York minute for a bad FCP.

Now, I'd like to know what Sen. McSally suggests happen if a soldier gets pregnant while on active duty. Are we supposed to set up maternity wards in field hospitals and day care centers at Division Tactical Operations Center? We'd have camouflage diapers, coyote-colored suede baby booties and cute little baby-size Kevlar helmets with matching cute little baby-size HANS Devices because K-pots are heavy and babies' heads flop around.