I wrote earlier that Lisa Pagan, a soldier in the IRR, should have been courtmartialed for her failure to report for her additional active duty commitment... without her kids.
Unfortunately for everyone, it appears this woman was successfully able to scam the Army into doing the expedient thing, instead of the RIGHT thing, and give her a choice between Leavenworth and finishing her commitment.
Make no mistake about it, folks... this woman became a coward and then used her children to avoid doing her duty... period. This was a blatant and obvious act of manipulation. I am ashamed that my Army let her get away with it.
Not surprisingly, a couple of equally character and integrity-challenged people were upset about my call for locking her up. One wrote, anonymously, this:
A heartwarming, but completely false, presumption on the poster's part."Did you know that she had exactly 30 days to report for in processing? 30 days to figure out what to do- she had no other option, she obviously couldn't construct a Family Care Plan (do you even know what that is?), and this is the route she chose."
THIS is the TRUTH of the matter:
"According to the Associated Press story, though, Pagan said that she knew, after giving birth to her first child while on active duty, that there was a chance she could be recalled. But instead of making a family-care plan, she buried the thought and had a second child after she left active service.Do those of you supporting her manipulation of the system GET it?
She was recalled in December 2007. Her subsequent two appeals postponed the call by 15 months - during which time she still could have devised that all-important family plan.
Instead, she dug in her heels."
She didn't have "30 days" to put a plan together... SHE HAD 15 MONTHS.
Fifteen months.
This woman didn't avoid service because she "couldn't" find adequate child care... SHE NEVER LOOKED FOR ADEQUATE CHILD CARE.
This was CLEARLY a case of successful manipulation of the Army, and everyone involved with caving into her outrageous demands... and then, apparently giving her an HONORABLE DISCHARGE, should be relieved and kicked out.
As the holder of an Honorable Discharge (five, actually... one for each enlistment) I find it an insult to all of us that did their duty like we were SUPPOSED TO DO THAT DUTY, not to mention the others that have gone before who did NOT use their children to avoid doing their duty... keeping their word... fulfilling their commitment.
And then to give her BENEFITS?
She will, as long as she lives, call herself a veteran. And her actions to use her children to manipulate the military so she wouldn't have to do her duty does dishonor to all that proudly bear that title.
Air Force Capt. Andrea Hooper and husband, Marine Lt. Col. Will Hooper, both reservists vulnerable to a call-up at any time, would have to leave behind Adeline, 2, and Henry, 4. Pagan is the Army mom on reserve status who was called into active duty but claimed that she had nowhere to place her kids while she was deployed.
Her husband's job required constant travel, so he couldn't care for the kids while his wife was gone. Nor could grandparents assume custody of the couple's children, ages 5 and 3.
Despite Pagan's appeals, the Army summoned her Sunday to Fort Benning, Ga.
So she brought her little ones with her.
"I guess they'll have to contact the highest person at the base, and they'll have to decide from there what to do," Pagan told the Associated Press last weekend, in a story that has been picked up around the globe.
"I either report and bring the children with me or don't report and face dishonorable discharge and possibly being arrested. I guess I'll just have to make my case while I'm there."
By yesterday afternoon, military officials had decided to discharge Pagan, though it wasn't yet known whether it would be an honorable parting.
You can imagine Pagan's anguish: What mom wouldn't fight to stay put with her kids?
Andrea Hooper, that's who.
"She needed to find child-care for her family," Andrea told me yesterday. "She made a serious promise when she enlisted, and she's obligated to fulfill it."
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