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70 Pregnant U.S. Soldiers Sent Home from Bosnia
‘It's the first time that I can remember that we have had to deal with this particular issue on such a public basis. It's being taken seriously’
FRANKFURT, July 22 (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers on the Bosnia peace-keeping mission have been banned from drinking alcohol or from leaving their bases but they have apparently not overlooked the fact that sex was not put off-limits.
At least 70 female American soldiers have been sent home because of pregnancy since the mission began in late December, a U.S. European Command spokesman said Monday. That converts to one pregnancy on average every three days among the 1,500 female soldiers participating in the mission, which involves a total of about 20,000 U.S. soldiers.
"It's the first time that I can remember that we have had to deal with this particular issue on such a public basis. It's being taken seriously," said U.S. Army Major Fougere Gordon.
The military regularly sends home pregnant women because of the heavy equipment they must use during a mission and also the inherent danger of the work. Female soldiers who decide to stay in the military are given six weeks off to care for their baby after the child is born or can usually receive an honourable discharge.
Stars and Stripes, the newspaper which has chronicled U.S. military life for decades, said in a recent story on the topic that the unusually lengthy Bosnia mission -- 12 months -- and the strict rules had been a strain on some soldiers. The newspaper said the military had been doing its part to encourage safe sex, with stores at bases in Bosnia and staging grounds in Hungary doing a brisk business in condoms.
Gordon said no charges of adultery had yet been filed against any married female soldiers who have become pregnant or men who have claimed responsibility for a child. The U.S. military can decide to press charges under military law if at least one of the two people involved in the sexual act is married to someone else.
The newspaper also said in a weekend story that GIs had found way to beat the ban on booze -- but that seven soldiers have lost their jobs by defying the ban. |
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