Pregnancy in the Military :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As the United States military moves towards a more bi-gender dependant force, it will be necessary for leaders and managers to combat the growing increasing of junior enlisted pregnancies. Through leadership skills, communication, and understanding the causes of the problems, leaders will be able to lower the rate of pregnancy, henceforth, increasing fleet readiness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To even consider any type of resolution or solution to the problem of pregnancy amongst junior enlisted members, we must first analyze the concept of fleet readiness and the units that comprise it in today’s military. As the post-Cold War military is downsized to fit the new world order and the decreasing defense budgets, there is increasing concern about the readiness of the military. If the military is called upon to achieve our national objectives, will they be where they are needed, when they are needed, and prepared to perform their missions? Since no one wants another episode of the ill-equipped, poorly trained â€Å"hollow force† that existed in late 1970’s, both President Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Perry cited readiness as the top defense priority.1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The joint forces Publication 1-02 defines readiness as the ability of forces, units, weapon-systems, or equipment, to deliver the outputs for which they were designed (this includes the ability to deploy and employ without unacceptable delays).2 In other words, deployability of servicemen/women and equipment to accomplish tasks around the globe is paramount. With this broad definition of fleet readiness, we can determine that the deployability of junior servicemen and women is a major factor to accomplishing fleet readiness within any force. While junior enlisted personnel comprise the majority of service people deployed throughout the world, this paper will explore the impact of the junior enlisted servicewoman and how different factors within command climate cause pregnancy to be a fleet readiness problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since readiness of the military is a high priority issue, Public Law 103-337, Section 533 requires the Department of Defense to submit an annual report on readiness factors by race and gender, beginning in FY96. As part of this report, deployability trends must be tracked. To ensure the data is reported correctly, a contract was issued to Logistics Management Institute to provide â€Å"a comprehensive analysis of the impact of non-deployable personnel on readiness. This study will also look at the degree to which individuals in active component units, who are non-deployable, are adversely affecting readiness.†1 With all the attention being given to readiness, it is important to understand some of the factors that may impact readiness