Air Force Maj. Matthew Checketts and his wife Jessica felt so strongly about the need for service members to be able to take leave to grieve the loss of a child that they wrote a letter to members of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those lawmakers listened, and have introduced bills that would amend current military leave policy so that pre-approved parental leave is not terminated in the event of a child\u2019s death. The bills are named for their daughter Elaine Checketts, who died on Nov. 5, two days after she was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposals don\u2019t grant extra time; they simply would allow service members to take their pre-approved parental leave in the case of a child\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Checketts was allowed 21 days of parental leave after the birth of his child. But according to an Air Force instruction, that leave is terminated upon the death of a child. Even so, his commander allowed him to take those full 21 days of leave, said Checketts, a prosthodontist stationed with the 59th Medical Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. It\u2019s also DoD policy that parental leave is terminated upon the death of a child, noted Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was blessed my commander gave me that, but every commander is different,\u201d Checketts said. \u201cThe policy says the leave is terminated. \u2026 He granted that extra time that he technically didn\u2019t have to do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bill was introduced June 5 by Reps. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Susan Davis, D-Calif., in the House \u2014 a companion bill to one introduced in the Senate May 20 by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas and Duckworth. \u201cWe ask our military to do so much for this nation, but returning to work the day after their child passes should have never been on that list,\u201d said Cornyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy wife and I decided to write the letter to our representatives because we felt it was our responsibility to do something to try and give everyone the same opportunity that I had.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He needed the time to help his wife recover physically from the traumatic birth, to arrange for the burial of their daughter, and to travel to Arizona for the burial. The Checketts\u2019 five sons needed his attention and help, too, he said. \u201cThey were looking forward to having a little sister,\u201d he said. And he was dealing with his own profound grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBefore babies are even born, we create memories in our heads, thinking of the experiences we\u2019ll have with that baby in the future,\u201d he said. His sons experienced that, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have a hard time imagining how I could have coped well,\u201d he said, without those extra days. \u201cThis is going to be a lifelong recovery. My wife and I will have a proverbial hole in our hearts,\u201d but getting through that initial trauma was important, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe tragic loss of a child creates an immeasurable amount of pain for families, and, just like any other American family, our men and women in uniform should have the time to grieve the loss of their child,\u201d Hurd said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This Air Force major’s commander allowed him to take his full parental leave after his baby died — even though that’s against current policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":106658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,93,12,25,15,67,18],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3302],"class_list":["post-67541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pay-benefits","category-pentagon-congress","category-spouse"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HZKPHO5HVZDBVMEUZEJCXVDG2I","arc_canonical_url":"\/pay-benefits\/2020\/06\/10\/this-air-force-couple-wants-to-help-other-service-members-get-time-to-grieve-deceased-children\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n