Dad Survives War But Loses Son in Court

“You want to make a soldier cry, you take his son away,” said Army National Guard Spc. Joe McNeilly of Grand Ledge, Michigan. “It’s devastating.”

Spc. McNeilly provided shared physical custody of his son for five years prior to his deployment, one week on, one week off. Then he was sent to Iraq in January, 2004 for fifteen months. While deployed, McNeilly agreed to give the boys’ mother temporary full custody until he returned from duty. But upon return, the court referee recommended against restoring shared physical custody. Instead, McNeilly’s boy was restricted to every other weekend and a few holidays with his dad.

With reasoning worthy of the Brave New World, Director Don Reisig of the Ingham County Friend of the Court denied that the recommendation had anything to do with McNeilly’s military service. “The fact that he was called up to defend his country makes no difference,” said Reisig. Rather, it was because the mother was the “day-to-day caretaker and decision maker in the child’s life” while McNeilly was overseas.

Hmmm.

Based on this incisive thinking, we can conclude that when married fathers return from Iraq, they should have no role in raising their children, since they were absent from day-to-day decision making while deployed.

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Best Regards,

Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.