LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S, Marine and new mother, Cpl. Jennifer Washington, has decided to ask for a discharge rather than abandon her baby to go fight in Iraq, Marine Corps officials said on Thursday.Washington, a mechanic engineer whose Marine sergeant husband was deployed to Iraq in January, was faced with a heartbreaking decision this week when she was given deployment orders herself.
"I told them I can't go and that I have a four-month-old son. They said, 'No, you're going anyway.' Somebody in my command advised me that I can give up my child for adoption. I said 'Oh no, that's not going to happen'," Washington told reporters.
Washington, who has been with the Marines for three years, said she was also the main caregiver for her mother and could not find anyone to care for both her mother and son while she was away.
Officials at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, where Washington is based, said Washington had applied for a humanitarian discharge. They could not say how long the process would take.
"Sometimes there are legitimate circumstances which arise where a Marine's personal life is not conducive to active military service .... Washington has chosen to avail herself of that process and is making application for a humanitarian/hardship discharge," the Marine Corps said in a statement.
