For more than a decade, families in the United States Army’s 7th Special Forces Group have struggled to find safe and affordable child care.
Earlier this month a “CBS Mornings” investigation. revealed that some Army Special Forces soldiers in Florida drove up to three hours round trip each day to take their children to childcare, or left the service altogether.
After that investigation, Secretary of the Army Christine Warmuth announced that they have plans to build a new child development center at Camp Bull Simons for the families of the 7th Special Forces Group.
Warmuth, who is the first woman to serve as secretary of the Army, said she takes personal care of the children.
“I’ve had the experience of racing to drop my kids off at daycare and getting to work on time, or racing to pick them up and kind of being the last parent to pick them up and getting the stink eye from the workers,” Wormuth said.
More than 11,000 children in military families are waiting for education.
While a new child development center will be built at Camp Bull Simons, Wormuth said the Army plans to improve access to child care on more bases with more daycare grants and at least 20 new child care facilities over the next decade.
They also face the same staff shortages as civilian day care centers. To help with recruiting, Warmuth said they are raising pay for those positions.
“Frankly, we’re in a war for talent, so we’re trying to increase our salaries,” she said.
Warmuth said child care issues in the military are a “readiness issue” and they take it very seriously because it can affect the overall mission.
“We don’t want a situation where someone is distracted from doing their job because they’re worried about their kids, or we don’t want to lose a good soldier because they couldn’t make it. childcare work,” Warmuth said.
Construction of the new Child Development Center at Camp Bull Simons is expected to take three years. CBS News has confirmed that the Army and Air Force recently signed a formal agreement that provides some short-term fixes for the families of the 7th Special Forces Group.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-army-secretary-childcare/
