 Soldier Chooses Family Over Army, Woman faces punishment for refusing Iraq |
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scottish2  |
Posted: 06-Nov-2003, 06:34 AM
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Celtic Guardian
Group: Celtic Nation
Posts: 3,048
Joined: 26-Sep-2001
Zodiac: Birch
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I decided to post this outside politics because I feel we should try and help this lady and her family out and the more that know about this the more that can be done. How dare the Army mark her as AWOL and make her shose her family over Army service. The courts have stated that one parent has to stay so she has a choice of violating a court order or face AWOL charges. Something has to be done here because the courts and the Army are using this family like Pawns in a Tug-O-War. While I person don't support the war I have always said I do support our troops and how dare the Army and the Courts play these little games with peoples lives!!! 
I urge you to write your reps and the president and get this case resolved in the favor of the family and not the courts or the Army they are second fiddle in this case!
http://www.denverpost.com/cda/article/prin...1739367,00.html
| QUOTE | Denver Post
Soldier chooses family over Army
Woman faces punishment for refusing Iraq duty to avoid losing custody of children
By Eileen Kelley
Special to The Denver Post
Sunday, November 02, 2003 -
FORT CARSON - A soldier forced to choose between her family and her career chose her children over the Army and now faces the punishment that being AWOL is sure to bring.
Simone Holcomb and her husband of three years, Vaughn Holcomb, also a soldier, were both sent to Iraq early this year. The children's paternal grandmother came from Ohio to look after them.
But while the Holcombs were absent, Vaughn's ex-wife filed for child support and was threatening to seek full custody of two of the Holcombs' seven children, who range in age from 4 to 12.
The ex-spouse, who is the biological mother of the two children, was granted temporary joint custody with the grandmother.
The legal action forced the Holcombs to return here on emergency leave in September. A judge in a custodial hearing mandated that one of the parents must stay home to look after the children in order for Vaughn to retain full custody of the two.
Vaughn, 40, went back to Iraq. Simone, 30, stayed - without the Army's permission. Now she faces dismissal and even jail time.
"I was told by the Army ... to get on a plane," Simone said Saturday night. "I even told them it was unlawful and they said 'I don't care, get on a plane.' It's against the law for me to abandon my children. I can no sooner walk out on my children than I can rob a bank just because the Army told me to."
Simone, a medic in the Colorado National Guard, said the word "nightmare" doesn't even begin to describe the war being waged against her family now that she's stateside. She said she's taken the matter to Sen. Wayne Allard's office.
Army officials have already stopped Simone's active-duty pay and are expected to begin the process of dismissing her from the military, according to an Army source.
A spokeswoman for the Colorado National Guard said that because Simone was activated for duty, the matter is no longer in their hands.
"We are trying to be proactive on this," said Senior Airman Carolyn Frankovich. "We're not the deciding factor in this. We have no control over this.
"We'd be happy to help, but we haven't heard from her."
While Simone and Vaughn, a sergeant with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Fort Carson, were half a world away, they got letters from their children saying, "Don't die."
From nightmares that Vaughn and Simone would die to reoccurring problems with bedwetting, the strain was heavy.
"My family is falling apart," 11- year-old Forest Gonzalez, one of Simone's five children, told his teacher recently, according to his grandmother, Sue Bearer.
Bearer, Vaughn's mother, is angered by the war and its lingering effects on her family.
"These guys are over there fighting and they are losing everything they fought and worked so hard to get before going over," Bearer told The Denver Post on Saturday.
Simone, who has been in the military for six years, will find out in the coming days what action the Army will take against her.
She tried to get an emergency release from active duty or a reassignment to Fort Carson, but she was denied. She said she told them that her husband was due to retire from the Army soon, to no avail.
In the meantime, Army officials have made it clear she's breaking the law by being absent without leave - despite the Colorado judge's order.
"She has sent them (commanding officers) e-mails every day from Day 1," Bearer said. "They say she is AWOL. They won't listen to what is going on."
Bearer packed up from Ohio and headed to Colorado nine months ago, as Simone, a citizen soldier, was told to report to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin to train for the war. Vaughn, a tank platoon sergeant, shipped out in the spring with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
When her son left, Bearer became the mother, father and referee of the large brood. She thought it would last only a few months.
Summer came and went without the return of the GI parents. Then came news that they would be in Iraq a full year. Then came the September court hearing.
The Holcombs needed to be back in Iraq in a matter of days when Simone said she would stay behind for the sake of the family, Bearer said.
Home now in Ohio, Bearer said she doesn't know what will become of the family.
"It's not like she is running away," Bearer said. "I cannot believe the military is doing this. Actually, I can."
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