Deployed Mom Defends Choice

[sfc_darrel]

Deployed Mom Defends Choice
By Pfc. Christina Carde
Army News Service
July 3, 2003

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- While sitting at my desk writing my daily article for the Freedom Watch, an Army newspaper for soldiers in Afghanistan, my co-worker casually turned to me and suggested that I type my name in the Yahoo search engine to see all of the articles I've written that have been posted on the Internet.

Not thinking anything of it, I typed my name in and began to scroll down headlines of stories I've written since my deployment to Afghanistan. I was not prepared for what I found.

"Agape News Press - The case of Private Christina," read one of the sites on the page. Curious, I clicked on it to see what had been printed about me. I received the shock of a lifetime.

Cort Kirkwood, a journalist and editor of The Daily News Record in Harrisonburg, Va., had read an article about me run by the Department of Defense Web news site, Defend America, titled "A Mom's Mission" and had decided to rip it to shreds. He called me everything from basically an unfit mother for leaving my son to go off to war to a sellout for enlisting in the Army for "30 pieces of silver," a.k.a., the Montgomery G.I. Bill.

As I read the article, I realized this was not only an attack on my 3-year-old son and me, but on all mothers deployed in the service of their country. However, since Mr. Kirkwood believes he is the subject-matter expert on the lives of women in the military he has never met or spoken to, I thought I would take the time to broaden his horizons using a few points he made in his article.

"Patriotism ain't the real reason Pfc. Christina signed up (for the Army). She enlisted for college benefits and to improve her family's lot in life, she enlisted for 30 pieces of silver."

Before I joined the Army, my son and I were living in one of the worst sections in the New York City area, where getting your next drug fix took nothing more than walking across the street or knocking on the neighbor's door. Working up to 60 hours a week was just barely paying the bills, and my 2-year-old son could have walked out the door at any time and been shot during a drive-by.

I suppose I could have taken the alternate route and applied for public assistance, so upstanding citizens like Mr. Kirkwood could pay my bills for me, but I decided to get out of the rut I was in on my own and joined the service. Now my son lives in a neighborhood where you can hear a pin drop and lights are out by 9 p.m.

"Who are the military morons who think this is a good idea (to allow mothers to deploy overseas)?"

When I came to this portion of the article, I could do nothing but sit back and laugh at the irony of his statement. The same "military morons" who give American women a chance to serve their country and provide for their families, are the same who fight and die alongside many of these women in today's combat operations. They are the ones who give journalists like Kirkwood the freedom of press and speech to write tasteless, unprofessional and uneducated "news articles" such as "The Case of Private Christina."

At least these mothers can return home with a sense of pride and accomplishment and be able to tell their children that they had a part in defending their country. What will Mr. Kirkwood be able to say other than he bashed the integrity and courage of these female troops during a time of war?

"Perhaps the would-be MacArthurs see nothing wrong with a mother dumping on her young son," was the final statement that stood out for me in the article.

Like many other deployed parents out here, I haven't seen my son in six months. However, I know my son is in a safe place with everything he needs. He will never be a child who has to wear second-hand clothing or the one stuck at home because I can't afford to send him on a class trip. That is the way things should be, and if I have to deploy in search of every Bin Laden and Hussein on the planet to keep it that way, then so be it.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent?...3&ESRC=army.nl

[39mto39g]

Christina Carde
Sounds like she doesn't need much defending, If the Army excepted her, as far as I am concerned she doesn't have to defend herself to anyone, Shes part of us, and if this guy don't like that, theres about 500,000 Army personnel that are looking over her sholder waving a finger to him.

Ron

[SEATJERKER]

...seems like someone needs flaming

...took the LIBERTY, in which we are so fond of due to the nature that a lot of us served in order to protect it, to pull up a certian e-mail address in which I will be making a little noise at soon enough...

..."kirkwood@dnronline.com"...

...think it's time where we check out the "managing editor" credentials, and see what a fine upstanding "citizen" he/she/it is...

...SMOKE UM........

...edit,...Peter Yates is the EDITOR...



...edit 2... had a little time to spit back at um, so hope I pissed him off anyway, ...

From: smokeykitty@att.net Save Address

To: kirkwood@dnronline.com
Subject: Military Women Vs. Newspaper assholes
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2003 20:01:41 +0000 [View Source]



...Kirkwood...

...No I didn't "read" your article, but saw enough snips of it of it to realize
that your just another chicken$hit a$$hole sitting behind a desk typing your
meaningless life away hoping that someday, you'll be recognized as someone
important...

...Well, I've got a "newsflash" for you. It doesn't matter how long you sit
there, and try to convince yourself of the forementioned, It will never happen,
WHY?... ask yourself this question, WHY am I an asshole?, let me count the
ways, because a long time ago, you dreamed of doing something meaningful with
your life, but you were a coward, you chose to seek the easy course in life
which was to be on the outside looking in, depending on all others to show you
some purpose in life. You think you sit there so high, and mighty, but the
truth is, you can't stand yourself, so you hide, and thats why would write a
column berating a woman that is serving her Country...


...So here I sit exercising my right to tell you the facts of life, There are
those that do, and those that don't, and your one that just plain won't, or
should I say wouldn't, you wouldn't get off your sorry a$$ to save yourself, so
why should anyone else save it for you, because people in the military realize
that we do have people in this Nation that are worthwhile, and others, like
you, who must be "carried" for they are weak, and can't carry themselves, you
are a double load to the worthwhile due to your being ignorant also, and it has
nothing to do with your education level...

...sleep well tonight, there are thousands of Pvt. Christina's covering your
pitiful a$$ tonight.........

...William C. Giles
...Service connected Disabled Veteran

...

[sfc_darrel]

U.S. Army Pfc. Christina Carde: A Mom's Mission
By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Jan. 29, 2003 -- When Army Pfc. Christina Carde received deployment orders for Afghanistan, she was ready to go -- even though it meant leaving her 3-year-old son.

"I was in Manhattan on Sept. 11," she said. "I stood a few blocks away and watched the Twin Towers burn to the ground. That made me realize there were people out there that need to be stopped."

Carde, a New Jersey native, was already slated to go on active duty, having enlisted in the Army to earn college benefits and improve her family's lot in life. Witnessing the terrorist attack only strengthened her resolve.

"I thought about my son and what could happen again if we didn't do something," she said. "That's what made me go ahead with my conviction to join the Army."

Carde now works as a print journalist and still photographer with the Army's 11th Public Affairs Detachment at Fort Polk, La. In mid-December, the detachment deployed to Afghanistan. She left her son at home in northern New Jersey with his dad.

"It was difficult leaving," she recalled. "My son was only two years old when I enlisted, and he didn't understand. I think he's become more accustomed to it now."

Carde was in basic training and Advanced Individual Training for about eight and a half months. Her son was then with her again for five months before she deployed to Afghanistan for six months. "In total," she said, "by the time I get back I'm going to have been away from him a third of his life."

These days, Carde lives in what the troops call a "hooch."

"It's basically a heated tent that can house about 8 to 10 people," she said. "It's not that bad. It's like a regular barracks room. You can put whatever you want in there -- a TV, DVD player. It's got heat in the winter and it's supposed to have air conditioning in the summer.

"From what I understand, things are a whole lot better as far as commodities and food and everything from when people first got here," she added. "They were using buckets for latrines. Things aren't that bad here now. A couple nights ago we had Outback Steakhouse. They came to our dining facility and we had the blooming onion and steak."

Carde said she was surprised by what she's encountered the five or six times she's gone out into the Afghan community on humanitarian missions.

"When you first come to this country, you think you're going to see a bunch of terrorists running around wanting to kill you. But it's the exact opposite," she said. "The Afghan people suffered from the Taliban and the terrorists even worse than we did. We lost two towers. They've lost their whole lives."

The soldier said she's seen conditions far different from those she's seen elsewhere.

"You see the Afghan people and it really makes you appreciate what you have back home," she said. "My son has all the clothes, all the toys and everything he could possibly want, and here you've got these poor little kids with potbellies from starvation. And you see it on a daily basis. You really need to stop and think what Americans take for granted, the stupid stuff they complain about every day."

Poor sanitation and the lack of basic infrastructure and medical care contribute to the Afghans' plight, according to Carde.

"It's so dirty out here, things get infected quickly," she said. "Just the smallest thing -- the common flu, a scratch, or something, can get so infected it looks like they were shot or something. Their wounds are just horrendous, and they came from a simple scratch or a fall.

Afghans with serious medical problems are being treated at Bagram Air Base, where the 48th Combat Support Hospital from Fort Meade, Md., has surgical capabilities. There, Carde said, she's seen the legacy of the past two decades - - small children maimed by stepping on land mines.

"This country has been through 23 years of war -- with the Russians, with the Taliban," she said. "You see bullet holes in these people's homes. Their homes have been attacked. Their women and children have been killed. These people have gone through a lot, and they're just really happy to see us here."

Invited into the homes of village elders and council members, Carde said she's found the Afghans to be "very hospitable people, very nice people. They're very giving, and they're extremely grateful that we're here to help them out."

Now that the Taliban has gone, she said, people are coming out and trying to rebuild their community. "They really are trying hard. There's a lot of jobs offered for contractors on Bagram Air Base, and they get first priority even above the American contractors, which I think is a good thing."

Carde said she's empathized with the Afghan women.

"I read somewhere that before the Taliban took over, 50 percent of Afghanistan's work force was women," she said. "Then when they took over, they took all the jobs away from the women. That's how everybody got thrown into poverty, because a lot of women were widows and they were the only source of income for their household."

Now that women are free of the Taliban, she said, many still maintain the tradition of wearing the concealing blue burka.

"A lot of the women are so used to it they don't want to take it off," Carde said. "The liberty is there now for the women. If they want it, it's there and they can take advantage of it."

She compared her role in society to that of the Afghan women.

"As a female soldier coming out here, I see what these women have to go through. I'm sitting here in uniform with a weapon and their men are looking up to me. That is just something that I thank God for, and for that reason, I'm happy to be an American troop, an American woman."

Carde said the deployment is fulfilling a life-long desire to travel, yet she longs for her own land.

"I come from a really strong Puerto Rican culture, so I miss family get-togethers," she said. "I miss that whole togetherness of family and being around people I grew up with. I miss the food. I miss the music. I miss the dancing. I miss my car. I miss going out -- and ?

"I miss my son."

U.S. Army Pfc. Christina Carde is a print journalist and still photographer with the 11th Public Affairs Detachment of Fort Polk, La. She and her unit are now serving a six-month deployment in Afghanistan. Photo by Linda D. Kozaryn

[sfc_darrel]

The Hard Line
Moms March to War

By R. Cort Kirkwood
February 12, 2003

(AgapePress) - An ignored issue in the upcoming war in Iraq, the waning war in Afghanistan, and indeed the U.S. military in general, is mothers. And not the mothers who send their sons and husbands to die.

We're talking here about mothers in the military, those dispatched overseas to leave husband and hearth behind, and most importantly, young children in the lurch. For some, this is "progress," to use the peculiar patois of feminists and their swains in the military.

But the other end of this nutty egalitarian equation, infants and small children, probably wouldn't view it that way.

The Case of Private Christina
The most recent case concerns Private Christina Carde, a "print journalist" serving in Afghanistan. The Armed Forces Press Service celebrates her in the article, "U.S. Army Pfc. Christina Carde: A Mom's Mission."

After witnessing the destruction and murder of September 11, 2001, Pfc. Christina told the propaganda agency, "I thought about my son and what could happen again if we didn't do something. That's what made me go ahead with my conviction to join the Army."

Lest you think we're talking about a 13-year-old boy who might understand Mom bailing out for a hitch in the Army, don't. He is 3 years old. "He didn't understand," she said, but "I think he's become more accustomed to it now."

And why is that? "Carde was in basic training and Advanced Individual Training for about eight-and-a-half months," the press service reports. "Her son was then with her again for five months before she deployed to Afghanistan for six months. ?In total,' she said, ?by the time I get back I'm going to have been away from him a third of his life.'"

In other words, the boy doesn't know his mother.

Does Anyone See a Problem Here?
One has to wonder what's going on at the Pentagon?

Perhaps the would-be MacArthurs see nothing wrong with a mother dumping her young son. Or maybe they think separation from Mom is best for the tike.

Or maybe someone lost his mind. Who are the military morons who think this is a good idea? Then again, given that many mothers dump their kids in daycare to pursue careers anyway, perhaps this is the next logical step.

The feminists will say Pfc. Christina has as much "right" as the next guy to serve her country. That isn't true, of course, but for a minute let's concede the argument. It doesn't follow that a mother has a "right" to ditch her kids. The best interests of the child supersede the professional desire or patriotic zeal of the mother and trump the interests of the state.

For that little boy, the best thing is to have Mom at home.

By the way, patriotism ain't the real reason Pfc. Christina signed up, the press service reported. Rather, she "enlisted in the Army to earn college benefits and improve her family's lot in life."

She enlisted for 30 pieces of silver.

Bring the Mothers Home, Mr. President
Pfc. Christina isn't the first or only mother who shipped out for the Gulf and left a child in the lurch.

But she ought to be the last.

If President Bush is as "compassionate" as he says, maybe he can spare a little compassion for these kids.

Be a man, Mr. President. Bring the mothers home.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/2/122003rck.asp

[Gunner Carvo]

I know, how about we also bring the fathers home who "left a child in the lurch"?

[Dragon Lady]

Pfc Christina Carde is not standing alone. The women of the US Army do not stand alone. The women of every other branch of service past and present stand ready at your back!

My son was 5 months old when Desert Storm broke and I had just departed from service. I was one of the very few not called, but I was ready if the call came in. Today my children are a little safer and free to speak their minds because of the women like Pfc Carde.

I haven't forgotten the men who have done the same thing, but for so many years the women have not been recognized.
Now there is a living memorial to all the women who have/are serving in the military. It is at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. Anyone can go there and read the stories of the lives and experiences of this special breed of women.
I'm proud when I hear a kid recite the old phrase, "Your mother wears combat boots!" And my kids come back with, "Yeah, steel toed ones and she'll kick your butt!"
Has no body ever heard that you should NEVER come between a mother and her child? Who would you fear more in battle? The man paid to protect or the woman fighting for her child?
This reporter is obviously an idiot in need of a brain transplant.