Monday, March 2, 2009

Lisa Pagan, You disgust me!

Army soldier whines about child care so she gets released from deployment...

I am so flipping mad about the Army releasing her from her obligations and her deployment. It's not like she has no husband, no parents, no in-laws. She's IRR, and she signed a contract. She absolutely knew what could happen... it doesn't matter that at the time she signed being called back to active duty rarely happened. That's why it's called a contract, and that's why she knew it was a possibility, however distant or unlikely at the time. Part of what makes me so mad is that she says that her husband travels too much to be able to watch the kids and will lose his job. Well... what the heck does she think the military spouses, mostly female, do when their husbands deploy? Does she think we mostly spend our time waiting to get married to a military man so we can then sit around and do nothing and enjoy it? Most women had excellent jobs and careers they have had to give up, either permanently or temporarily, for the deployment cycles. Family finances suffered and careers suffered. It's exhausting being the only parent who is watching the kids and running the household. But apparently she's above all that.

If she was a man, they would have ridiculed her, not released her. She wanted to do that job, she should have done it all the way, instead of taking the chicken s^^^ way out. She had 4 years to figure out a plan for deployment care of her children, WHICH ALL MILITARY MEMBERS ARE REQUIRED TO DO, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. It's not the military's fault that she was too lazy, too selfish or just too stupid to do it.

And as for her husband, if he was any good at his sales job, then they would hire him back. One thing I've learned about sales is that all they care about is production, and if he could produce, he would be able to find another job. He could have hired a nanny to watch the kids when he had to leave town or paid family members to be live in help for the 7-12 month deployement. It really wasn't that long.

I wish I could just claim that I would lose my job if I had to stay home with Amelia, then perhaps they wouldn't send Rafe on deployment. hahahahhhheeehoohoo.... too late, I suppose, as I already gave up my career when I married Rafe because of his travel schedule and I stopped working all together when I had Amelia because of his deployment schedule.

Lisa Pagan, I hope you read this and know how low you are in the eyes of the true servicemembers and their families who do their jobs and keep their word. But, I would probably guess that you could care less, as your choices indicated you lacked integrity and your husband lacked balls.

By the way, if anyone thinks I am being harsh on her for chastising her publicly, think again. She was the one who brought this to the attention of the newspapers so she could get the sympathy vote from the general public who don't understand how the contracts work or HOW MANY TIMES she would have been told of the recall possibility and HOW MANY TIMES she would have been told to have a child care plan and a backup child care plan, and HOW MANY TIMES they would have had briefings for her on how to do that. Once she threw it in public domain, it was fair game.

3 comments:

Growingtogether said...

I agree-- I agree-- I agree.
I have not been able to figure out why in the world she has made the news?????
I wish they would stand up to her and tell her to suck it up.
I truly believe that if she were a marine ( Well she wouldn't be acting this way) but they would tell her just that. Suck it up woman!

Laurie said...

If she was a Marine, she'd kill a few other Marines by having them laugh to death at the idea. :)

She contacted the news herself so she could get the publicity and sympathy vote, and the Army caved.

Julie Marsh said...

Laurie, thanks so much for your comment over at my column, The Parental is Political. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.

I think your anger is justified, and not just because your husband has been deployed more than once. It's because so many AD and AR members have been deployed multiple times that they need to dip into the IRR. IRR members need to make a plan, absolutely. Times have changed; the likelihood of being called up has increased.

That said, I wish stories like yours got as much attention as hers. If you'd be willing to be interviewed for an upcoming TPIP column, please email me. It's not the NYT, but I can assure you that I'm genuinely interested.