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Subject:
From:
Liz Flight <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 19 Feb 1997 09:30:26 -0500
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In a message dated 97-02-19 01:41:54 EST, you write:

<< For ARMY LIEUT. EMMA CUEVAS, there used to be nothing to compare with the
 thrill of skimming the treetops of Panama at 160 mph in a 10 - ton, 50 ft.
 Black Hawk helicopter.  That was before she discovered the slower-motion joy
 of nursing her 21 lb., nine-month-old daughter Isabella.  Since then Cuevas
 has twice asked the Army to let her leave the service, arguing that a
pilot's
 demanding schedule has made it impossible for her to breastfeed her daughter
 properly.  The Army says no, explaining that Cuevas made a deal when she
 bacame a cadet at West Point.  U.S. taxpayers spent $500,000 educating her
at
 the academy and at pilot training school in exchange for her pledge to stay
 in uniform until May 2000.  >>

OK everyone, before you go bonkers on this one, lets look at a well rounded
picture of military life!!!   I'm not ready to die on this hill.     Women
who enter the military know from the beginning when they sign the "contract
of service for pay" exactly what they are getting into.  ALL women who give
birth in the military get the same leave policy.  Usually that means 6 weeks
maternityleave coupled with any other leave they have accumulated on the
books.  You can safely accumulate 60 days leave before you start losing days
at the end of a fiscal year. (If you are on sea duty you can save more)
 While not likely, at least theoreticallyyou could have up to 3 1/2 months
off....WITH pay to birth and stay homewith a baby.   Compared to women in a
corporate position I would say that this is pretty liberal leave.
This particular case, the officer has had the benefit of a half million
dollar education at a military academy.  She is saddled with the additional
promise of service to repay the taxpayer for her education just as other
servicemen and women have done.  This policy applies to other servicemembers
who have received education through ROTC programs as well (  perfect example:
doctors in the military)  Her excuse that others have been released early
from their contracts doesn't really wash here.....she has had the additional
benefit of flight training.   I am not sure about the Army, but the Navy
flight training costs about a million dollars per student, not to mention
that they receive fixed wing training as well.  After a year "away from
flying"  the pilot would have to go back through a modified flight training
(FRS) to reattain his or her qualifications (NATOPS QUALS)  at the cost of
several thousand more dollars.  Now how do you feel about letting her out of
her contract?????
I guess its hard for me to feel sorry for her when I work with enlisted women
who have worked so hard to get support in their squadrons and work in hangars
with little comfort and little privacy.  They put in a full dayof hard
physical work and continue to pump for their babies.  These women can't even
afford decent pumps most of the time....(most enlisted ranks are eligible for
WIC.)
The sad part about this is she's USING breastfeeding as an excuse to get out
of a contract.  I don't deny her desire to nurse or provide EBM for her baby,
but you MUST realize that people try a myriad of excuses to get out of their
service contracts.  Surely you have heard the stories of heterosexuals
feigning homosexuality to get out, women getting pregnant to get out of going
to sea, people requesting humanitarian leave (loco parentis)to get out of
going to sea.  For all we know, she may be trying to avoid an undesirable
duty station.  This is not a mother in a dispute over child custody who can't
or won't pump, this is a highly trained pilot/military soldier that the
taxpayer/government has spent literally millions of dollars on.  (And who
with the benefit of maternal hormones has changed her mind)

I remember vividly the men and women in the reserves who were called up for
duty during the Persian Gulf war.  They had children who had to be left with
relatives as they were sent overseas.  Did they have any fewer rights?  Did
they want to leave their children?  They all signed contracts, they all
received pay, they all did "weekend" duty to be in the reserves.     We alll
make hard choices in our lifetime.
Her quote that it "weakens the family unit" should have come to her before
she took a space at West Point and before she took a space in flight
training.  This action will be as big a set back to women in the military as
the argument about women on ships who get pregnant to get out of duty.  What
a shame.  What a slap in the face to career military women who have
sacrificed for everyone.

Off soap box. Liz Flight, daughter of a WWII vet (20 years enlisted), wife of
a Navy Pilot, mother of an enlisted young man.

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