AP: Mom: Deployment Leaves No One to Care for Kids

The Associated Press spoke with IAVA Policy Associate Tom Tarantino for this article about how extended deployments and the lack of childcare resources leaves some military families with no one to care for their children. Tom Tarantino, a policy associate with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit group that helps veterans, said the Army has taken a hard line on many of these cases. "Usually the only way that someone can get out of the deployment or get out of the military due to a family hardship is if they get into a situation where the kids will be put into foster care," Tarantino said. "That's how serious it has to be, and I'm sure what the military is telling her — and I'm not saying that this is exactly the right answer — but the fact that it is inconvenient for her husband's job is not the military's problem. It's very harsh." [link]