TPC EXCLUSIVE: Army mom still facing Afghanistan deployment, court martial

By GottaLaff

U.S. Army Specialist Alexis
Hutchinson holding her son, Kamani. (Photo: Courtesy of Alexis Hutchinson)

If you've been following the heart wrenching story about U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, you will be interested in this update. If you haven't, here's a brief refresher...

Dahr Jamail's original piece is a must-read:

US Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas. [...]

She has been attempting to find someone to take care of her child, Kamani, while she is deployed overseas, but to no avail. [...]

In late October, Angelique Hughes [her mother] told Hutchinson and her commander that she would be unable to care for Kamani after all. The Army then gave Hutchinson an extension of time to allow her to find someone else to care for Kamani. Meanwhile, Hughes brought Kamani back to Georgia to be with his mother.

However, only a few days before Hutchinson's original deployment date, she was told by the Army she would not get the time extension after all, and would have to deploy, despite not having found anyone to care for her child.

Faced with this choice, Hutchinson chose not to show up for her plane to Afghanistan. The military arrested her and placed her child in the county foster care system.

Please read the whole thing to get a fuller picture of what has been going on. To keep up on the latest news, please go here. An excerpt:

In response to a public outcry, growing media attention, and congressional inquiries, the Army backed off of their pledge to deploy Alexis last night, November 15. Alexis’ lawyer Rai Sue Sussman of San Francisco notes that “The Army maintains that she may still be sent to Afghanistan for a court martial.” That has left Ms. Sussman contemplating travel to Afghanistan to represent her client.

This story made the rounds on Twitter, and many of us were going back and forth trying to figure out a solution.

Then I got a private message from a wonderful Twitter pal of mine, Davidgs, who I introduced to you back in September. He told me he lived within driving distance of the child and would offer his home and care to the family. At this point, all we knew is that Alexis was frantically trying to find someone who she could trust to care for Kamani.

Davidgs and I immediately began to dig for contacts. David sent e-mails to Dahr and Jeff Paterson, a Marine who is Courage to Resist project director. While he was doing that, I fell into a happy coincidence: My friend Jason Leopold works with Dahr and gave me his phone number. I called Dahr, who gave me his blessing to pick up the story where he left off, and then he gave me Jeff's phone number.

I'll be receiving updates from Jeff as soon as he is able to give them, but at the moment, he is overwhelmed with this undertaking. However, I do have an e-mail exchange between Jeff and David that was enlightening, heartwarming, and somewhat encouraging.

First, from David to Jeff (exclusive to TPC):

I know that I am a random person from the internet, volunteering for a serious commitment, and you don't know me from Adam, but I can assure you that I am serious.

My wife, 2 1/5 year old daughter and I live in a nice neighborhood in Cary, NC. I work from home, and my wife is a full-time stay at home mom, so we're BOTH here all the time. I also have 2 boys -- one is a special needs, wheelchair-bound child -- from a previous marriage that are here part time.

We are a stable, loving, happy, normal home and would be honored to help this soldier out in her time of need.

Best Regards,
dg

Forgive the stock phrasing, but his generosity restores my faith in mankind.

Now Jeff's reply:

Hi David. Thank you so very much for your generosity. I've pasted a section of an article I just published (http://couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/792/1/) after working with the family for the last week or so. It sort of outlines what they are currently thinking about Kamani's care.

Thanks again!

Offers to care for infant

Since Courage to Resist helped break news of this outrage--which has now been covered by NPR, AP, USA Today, and The NY Times-two dozen very generous and caring individuals and couples from across the country have come forward with offers to care for Kamani. Alexis and her family want to share their gratitude for this generosity.

Without time to even evaluate these offers, however, this situation is too similar to that of Kamani being placed back into a county foster care system-which of course also has some amazing caregivers. If Alexis is deployed, it's understandable that the family will try very hard to find a way to keep Kamani near them in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While Kamani was in county foster care in Georgia, he was fed a dairy product that the 11-month old had an allergic reaction to. He has been "very clingy" since explains his grandmother. The family hopes that Alexis and Kamani can be reunited as soon as possible.

Dahr had filled me in earlier about offers that were coming in. He noted that one came from a lance corporal in the Marine Corp Reserves named Jeff Key. He and his gay partner live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Dahr told his story (along with others') in a post called "Resisting Homophobia in the Military". Please give it a read.

And finally, here is a quick update I got this morning from Jeff:

Kamani is with grandma for now. She can handle him, with a lot of help from friends, for a few days. We’re all hoping for some kind of resolution quickly.

[...] [T]he family and lawyer are overwhelmed at the moment with press. They are scheduled to be on The Today Show Wednesday, for example.

Jeff

With the likes of people like David reaching out, and with Jeff and company on the case, I am feeling more hopeful by the day. Along with Alexis and her family, I want to express my deepest gratitude.

And thank you Dahr, for telling Alexis' story.

Soldier: Obama not U.S. born, can't send me to Afghanistan

By GottaLaff

U.S. Army Major Birther, not reporting for duty, SIR!

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook is seeking a federal court order to stall and eventually prevent an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.

In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia — Cook's California-based attorney, Orly Taitz, asks the court to consider granting his client's request based upon Cook's belief that President Barrack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of U.S Armed Forces.

Why didn't Boy Georgie think of that? Everyone knows Lyndon Johnson was born in Kenya.