Ok after a lengthy discussion on domestic violence in the Army it seems as if everyone (counselors, Chain of Command, Social workers etc) hit all around treating the symptoms of the problem. Everyone conveniently ignored the pink elephant trumpeting loudly in the corner. We learned how behavioral health can help, Chaplains,child protective services, MP's etc. We learned statistics for example over 3/4ths the cases are E-1/E-4, over 3/4ths the cases involve those 25 and younger, most of the kids involved under 5 years of age.
Anyone see a trend here, anyone recognize the pink elephant yet??? HOW'S ABOUT YOUNG SOLDIERS GETTING MARRIED AND HAVING KIDS TOO YOUNG!!! Let's address the problem instead of the symptoms for once. Ask yourself does that 19 year old private need to marry that 26 year old single mom with 5 kids (the oldest being 10) who's main goal seems to be to have a child by everyone in the Battalion??? This is the problem is it not??
But will the "Army Leadership" (more and more a contradiction in terms) ever address the real problem? Naw, what General wants to lose his job (really when was the last time you saw someone retire over PRINCIPLES AND MORAL CONVICTIONS) because they go against Congress who is willing to let anyone serve as long as they don't have to vote on a draft?
Really? How hard is it to tell that 21 year old Female Private she shouldn't be shacking up with that 30 year old guy who has been married 3 times already? To tell that 22 year old Specialist his wife is not just a baby factory and maybe 4 kids as a Specialist is enough (time to get clipped maybe?) No all of that is not "politically correct" we can't get into the Soldiers business like that.
Really why is it we can get into their business when they hit their wife, have to lose valuable work hours escorting them from one appointment to the other. Spend hours counseling one problem Soldier while the good ones are neglected. Yet we "can't involve ourselves in their personal lives" just once BEFORE THE FACT and tell em to stay single, that they are not in a good relationship, that the person they are marrying is a lowlife piece of garbage they should avoid like a venereal disease. But we can spend a LIFETIME handle the problem once it has now become an issue as a squad leader.
Unfortunately it hasn't changed since I was in. I retired 22 year ago. You can counsel young troops on getting married at 19 or shacking up with someone 10 years older etc. But unfortunately, no officer or NCO can stop them from doing what they want when it comes to personal decisions. Many of these you people wouldn't listen to the parents so it is unlikely that they will listen to the advise of NCO's or Officers. When I joined you had to be at least, an E-4 with four years of service to be eligible, housing, housing allowances, seperate rations, if you weren't and was married everything was paid for out of your own pocket. When you consider that a PV1 base pay was $99 per month, even an E-4 under 4 only made about $200 before taxes and any other deductions, so with no other allowances it pretty much discouraged most young troops from getting married. If you were single you were not allowed to live off post no matter what rank or at least enlisted and junior officers. You lived in the barracks, BEQ, or BOQ. I can't be sure about Field Grade officers as all the ones I knew were married. That pretty much changed in 1973 when the Army went all volunteer.
Ask yourself does that 19 year old private need to marry that 26 year old single mom with 5 kids (the oldest being 10) who's main goal seems to be to have a child by everyone in the Battalion??? This is the problem is it not??
Unfortunately it hasn't changed since I was in. I retired 22 year ago. You can counsel young troops on getting married at 19 or shacking up with someone 10 years older etc. But unfortunately, no officer or NCO can stop them from doing what they want when it comes to personal decisions. Many of these you people wouldn't listen to the parents so it is unlikely that they will listen to the advise of NCO's or Officers. When I joined you had to be at least, an E-4 with four years of service to be eligible, housing, housing allowances, seperate rations, if you weren't and was married everything was paid for out of your own pocket. When you consider that a PV1 base pay was $99 per month, even an E-4 under 4 only made about $200 before taxes and any other deductions, so with no other allowances it pretty much discouraged most young troops from getting married. If you were single you were not allowed to live off post no matter what rank or at least enlisted and junior officers. You lived in the barracks, BEQ, or BOQ. I can't be sure about Field Grade officers as all the ones I knew were married. That pretty much changed in 1973 when the Army went all volunteer
Same when I first came in, and the "system" seemed to work better it seems. Now instead of doing everything we can to discourage these issues as then, we do the complete opposite and ENCOURAGE them. Want $700 extra a month find someone to marry, want to move off post and get out of the barracks so you can finally have some peace and quiet from the "nanny" Army? Get married. Single parent, sure come on in let Uncle Sam be the "baby daddy" Pregnant, don't worry we won't discharge you like we used to on the contraire we will pay for prenatal care, pay for the baby to be born, put you on WIC, give you free housing so you can move out of the barracks, provide medical care until the child is 18 or in some cases older. Oh and you are pretty much exempt from work, pt, details etc for 9 months. Hell yeah why not?? We will even give you child care.
I mean it would seem this would be the behavior the Army would try to discourage, afterall none of this can come cheap. So why can't we address the PROBLEM for once, not the symptoms while doing all we can to ensure the "problems" remain.
I agree with everything you are saying ronald, except the stuff about the pregnant service members.
I DEFINATELY do not think you should get housing, etc if you are a single female and can't manage NOT to get pregnant. I am a female Marine. I plan on being a lifer and I have managed not to get pregnant EVER because I make a concerted effort not to and I think irresponsibility should not be rewarded.
However, I am 26 and have been in for 8 years. I am heading to the drill field for the next three years and I will be 30 by the time my tour is up. At that point, I hope to be married to my significant other and ready to start a family. I mean.... I'll only have so many years to reproduce and don't really want to be concieving children to far into my 30's.
And when I do get pregnant I'll probably be a SNCO and I'll want the prenatal care, housing, etc. I have never let a pregnant Marine out of her obligation to PT (the exercise bike, and a brisk walk on the treadmill is still PT and she can handle it), nor have I exempted them from normal duties until they were into thier 3rd trimester (obviously I don't work in a very physically demanding MOS, but if I did, she'd still be responsible for pulling her weight in some fashion.) But, whenever I do decide to get pregnant, those extra 6 months to get back in shape will be very benificial for me.
I know what you were getting at and I'm in total agreement with everyone who has posted tuhs far, I just wanted to point out that some stuff is warrented. People that game the system ruin it for everyone that's trying to do the right thing.
Just like there's always "THAT GUY," "THAT GIRL" p*sses me off too.
Remembering back to my Regular Army days, it seems that across the board, most of my problems were lower enlisted. That includes not only domestic violence, but drinking, bad checks, AWOL, fights, missing formations, losing gear...
