Commander William Earl Fannin, Class of 1945, Capstone Essay Contest
Pregnancies among junior enlisted sailors are a controversial issue; when unplanned, they can damage the effectiveness of any unit. Junior officers have a role to play in ensuring those under their command make the best decisions about their bodies, their private lives, and their duties as sailors.
If a female sailor becomes pregnant while on deployment, there might be a point when successfully completing her job means endangering her unborn child. If that sailor is unable to complete her daily tasks, the rest of her unit must take on extra work. Likewise, if a man unexpectedly learns he soon will be a father, his focus might be on the birth of his child rather than on his job. To prevent situations such as these in the future, junior officers can provide their sailors with information on birth control and on the detrimental effects of unplanned pregnancies.
A study by USA Today showed that 31 % of women in the military fail to complete their first enlistments because of physical problems, pregnancy, or failure to adapt to the military. According to another study, up to 18% of Navy women become pregnant each year and nearly 75% of these pregnancies occur among 20-to-24-year-old junior enlisted women. In this study, among 1,300 female sailors questioned, 87% had given birth to a child in the past three years. When these sailors take medical leave from their jobs, whether at sea or ashore, their units immediately become less efficient. In addition, one-third of these sailors do not marry during their pregnancies, giving rise to another problem: single parentage.
Navy policy allows a pregnant woman to serve on board surface ships until the 20th week of gestation, as long as she is less than six hours away from emergency medical care. Medical evacuation rates for women in surface ships have been found to be two-and-a-half times that of men. This illustrates one of the main problems with unplanned pregnancies—after pregnant women are evacuated from the ship, there are no replacements. Many of the smaller ships in the fleet, such as destroyers and frigates, do not have the medical capabilities to deal with a pregnancy-related emergency. Thus, some commanding officers, on learning of a pregnancy, assign sailors to temporary duty ashore.
Another difficulty lies in the retention of those who take emergency leave to give birth. One study found that if sailors missed a portion of their deployments, the probability was high they would not return to their jobs. It is clear that unplanned pregnancies detract from the Navy's goal of having sailors who will serve their country for sustained periods.
According to Lieutenant Amanda Kuehne, a company commanding officer at the U.S. Naval Academy, the main problem with unplanned pregnancies is that each crew is allotted a certain number of sailors for each deployment; after the unit deploys, there are no replacements. Consequently, the rest of the crew must take on more work when a pregnant sailor is forced to leave the ship. A command cannot be fully effective if it lacks the personnel required to complete daily tasks efficiently.
There are other problems that can arise from unplanned pregnancies. When sailors take on extra work, morale can suffer and tensions among sailors can increase. These tensions are heightened when the possibility arises that the woman got pregnant to avoid deployment. Lieutenant Kuehne notes that during the four years she was attached to the Spruance (DD-963), six sailors became pregnant. Of those, four became pregnant just before the ship was scheduled to deploy, a coincidence that generated "hate and discontent" among many of the male members of the crew who believed the women got pregnant to avoid the six-month deployment. In addition, the billets left open did not get filled right away. Thus, the crew was forced to assume extra duty assignments. This phenomenon is not new: during the Gulf War, in some units, 18% to 20% of the women were unable to participate because of pregnancies.
Lieutenant Kuehne also states that men and women are treated differently with regard to pregnancy issues. Men are not allowed emergency leave when their wives or partners give birth. Although a man cannot become pregnant, it is easy to understand how he might worry about the welfare of his family and want to be with them. This inequitable treatment creates tension on board ships.
On this issue, the Navy has abandoned moral leadership and its responsibility to its young men and women by catering to personal desires. The Navy refuses to view pregnancy as a disqualifying condition for military action. It draws no distinction between married and unmarried servicewomen who become pregnant. It does not demand financial support and other forms of paternal responsibility, even though 70% of the fathers of military births also are in the military. The Navy's pregnancy policy costs millions of dollars; it degrades a work culture devoted to the idea of personal sacrifice. Instead of raising its standards, the Navy accepts a lower state of readiness to cater to the whims of those who put their own desires before their commitment to serve their country and loyalty to their shipmates.
The Navy, however, can do much to help prevent unplanned pregnancies. Junior officers should educate their enlisted sailors about the detrimental effects of unplanned pregnancies and instill in them a sense of duty that steers them away from actions that would hinder the effectiveness of their ship. Distributing condoms and other forms of birth control—and educating sailors how to use them—are simple measures commands can implement to help combat this problem.
Another measure that would help address this issue would be to improve the berthing situations on board ships. Men and women already have separate berthing, but this setup could be improved to reduce intercourse on ships even further. Other options include forbidding pregnancies while in the service or imposing harsh penalties on those who cannot finish their deployments because of pregnancy. In years past, pregnancy while in the military was grounds for discharge or transfer. While this option might sound cruel and harsh to some, the special nature of military service—with all its peculiar hazards—must be kept in mind. A less authoritarian approach would be to make sailors go back to their original ships after childbirth. The prospect of facing the crew after missing a deployment could cause some women to plan when they get pregnant—and not leave their ship shorthanded on a deployment.
Junior officers who instill a sense of duty and commitment in their junior enlisted personnel to ensure maximum unit effectiveness can be the difference in combatting unplanned pregnancies.
Ensign McAllister is assigned to the sailing center at the Naval Academy. After attending Surface Warfare School he will report to the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62).