AWOL Mom Can Stay In U.S.

[Dragon Lady]

By the way...back in the Early 80s when I joined; they asked me if I had any children and they wanted proof that I had relinquished custody of my daughter before they would allow me to join the service.

They still frown on single parents on active duty, but are you going to discharge everyone who is already serving but going through divorce or widowed? Start doing that and our forces will surely be hurting.

DL again.

[Dragon Lady]

Many women become almost completely useless to the military shortly before and then after giving birth.

David, I worked on the day I went into labor with my middle child and I had saved all of my leave for when she was born. This was long before the family leave act and the only time that a woman was given to recuperate was two weeks...standard for surgery too. When Kelly was 6 weeks old I returned to the flight line and pulled 12 hour shifts for the next 14 days since we had just started an MRI.

And for that period shortly before she was born I was also working 12 hour shifts plus taking work home with me because I was heading up the team that shifted all of the training records for every person assigned to the 436 OMS (over 2,000). These records sometimes stretched back to the Viet Nam years on some of our Mechs. My team was tasked with entering every single item on every single person into the system by hand. Then I had to review each print out against their written records for accuracy. We were the first squadron to use this system Air Force wide.

I wouldn't exactly call that useless.

And you would think that after all these years I would grow tired of trying to defend myself and my sisters. But until the day that men change their point of view on women in the military AND the day that those few, yes few, women stop making a bad name for the rest of us who serve with distinction and honor...then I will stop. Not until that day.

Until then...kisses fellas!

DL