Gates will review deployment, custody issues - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Gates will review deployment, custody issues

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would “take a fresh look” at service members’ concerns in child custody disputes, according to two members of Congress who met with him Thursday.

Reps. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., said they appreciated Gates’ acknowledgment of the problem of deployments being used by judges as a criterion in deciding child custody cases.

In a statement issued by Turner’s office, he and Herseth Sandlin noted the need for “a national, baseline standard that protects service members and allays their unrest about future deployment being used as a criterion in deciding child custody cases.”

For the last three years, Turner has offered an amendment providing basic child custody protection while on active duty, but the Pentagon has opposed the amendment.

Pentagon officials contend that the welfare of the child is the paramount consideration, and that state courts should be able to determine what is in the child’s best interest because they are closer to and more familiar with the circumstances of individual cases.

“We are confident that we can work with the Department of Defense on a solution to this matter that will protect our men and women in uniform, as well as their families,” Turner and Herseth Sandlin said in a letter sent to Gates after the meeting.