Crouch and an unknown number of others among the 140,000-plus single parents in uniform fight a war on two fronts: For the nation they are sworn to defend, and for the children they are losing because of that duty.Read the entire article. Then consider that the courts are right: the best interest of the child must be the standard. Unlike any other civil remedy, that interest cannot be put in limbo for 18 months, 2 years. Consider, too, that unlike the "Greatest Generation," this generation has a very high percentage of divorced custodial parents in uniform. I barely knew a family, when I grew up, that had known divorce. My daughter barely knows a family that hasn't. That's not a criticism, it's a reality.
A federal law called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is meant to protect them by staying civil court actions and administrative proceedings during military activation. They can't be evicted. Creditors can't seize their property. Civilian health benefits, if suspended during deployment, must be reinstated.
And yet service members' children can be _ and are being _ taken from them after they are deployed.
So this trainwreck was inevitable; as inevitable as the disaster of invading Iraq. What it indicates is not neglect by the military, or a misreading of the law by family law courts. What it indicates is that there are so many threads binding us all; touch one, and you touch every one of those threads.
And that has consequences: for generations, and for the lives of individuals long after individual politicians have left office.
What have we done? What have we done?
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