Humanitarian Assignments
Monday July 7, 2008
It's an unfortunate truth that sometimes during a military career, a member may experience a severe family hardship which requires his/her presence to resolve, with circumstances which make resolving it with emergency leave impractical.
To help military members in such situations, each of the services have developed a program which allows military members to be re-assigned, or temporarily deferred from assignment, if they have a severe family hardship which absolutely requires their presence to resolve. The Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard call this program "Humanitarian Assignments." The Army calls their program "Compassionate Assignments."
To help military members in such situations, each of the services have developed a program which allows military members to be re-assigned, or temporarily deferred from assignment, if they have a severe family hardship which absolutely requires their presence to resolve. The Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard call this program "Humanitarian Assignments." The Army calls their program "Compassionate Assignments."
Comments
As a company commander in the early 1980’s I was able to assist a soldier and his family when his father died leaving a family farm in danger of being lost due to the lack of someone to take charge of it. My soldeier initially was reassigned to the local recruiting command where he performed his military duties and was also able to oversee the family farm. The result was that (1) several local news organizations heard about his reassignment;(2)the Army recieved a great deal of positive publicity;(3)the local recruiting command saw an increase in enlistments; and (4) the morale and the reenlistment rate in my company rose. Now, nearly 25 years later, I still annually receive a Christmas letter from the soldier and his wife thanking me for making the effort to see to his family’s care. The farm is going strong. And two of their family’s children have made the Army a career. The paperwork to assist my soldier was minimal as the division A.G. got behind my efforts and took care of nearly everything. On the other end, the recruiting command’s sergeant major saw to it that our young soldier was assigned to the command and stationed close to his hometown. It’s important for all of us to remember that as soldiers, we are all part of a bigger family and that we can take care of one another during times of need.