By Eileen Kelley, Special to The Denver Post
FORT CARSON - A soldier forced to choose between her family and her career chose her children over the Army and now faces the punishment that being AWOL is sure to bring.
Simone Holcomb and her husband of three years, Vaughn Holcomb, also a soldier, were both sent to Iraq early this year. The children's paternal grandmother came from Ohio to look after them.
But while the Holcombs were absent, Vaughn's ex-wife filed for child support and was threatening to seek full custody of two of the Holcombs' seven children, who range in age from 4 to 12.
The ex-spouse, who is the biological mother of the two children, was granted temporary joint custody with the grandmother.
The legal action forced the Holcombs to return here on emergency leave in September. A judge in a custodial hearing mandated that one of the parents must stay home to look after the children in order for Vaughn to retain full custody of the two. Advertisement
Vaughn, 40, went back to Iraq. Simone, 30, stayed - without the Army's permission. Now she faces dismissal and even jail time.
"I was told by the Army ... to get on a plane," Simone said Saturday night. "I even told them it was unlawful and they said 'I don't care, get on a plane.' It's against the law for me to abandon my children. I can no sooner walk out on my children than I can rob a bank just because the Army told me to."
Simone, a medic in the Colorado National Guard, said the word "nightmare" doesn't even begin to describe the war being waged against her family now that she's stateside. She said she's taken the matter to Sen. Wayne Allard's office.
Army officials have already stopped Simone's active-duty pay and are expected to begin the process of dismissing her from the military, according to an Army source.
A spokeswoman for the Colorado National Guard said that because Simone was activated for duty, the matter is no longer in their hands.
"We are trying to be proactive on this," said Senior Airman Carolyn Frankovich. "We're not the deciding factor in this. We have no control over this.
"We'd be happy to help, but we haven't heard from her."
While Simone and Vaughn, a sergeant with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Fort Carson, were half a world away, they got letters from their children saying, "Don't die."
From nightmares that Vaughn and Simone would die to reoccurring problems with bedwetting, the strain was heavy.
"My family is falling apart," 11- year-old Forest Gonzalez, one of Simone's five children, told his teacher recently, according to his grandmother, Sue Bearer.
Bearer, Vaughn's mother, is angered by the war and its lingering effects on her family.
"These guys are over there fighting and they are losing everything they fought and worked so hard to get before going over," Bearer told The Denver Post on Saturday.
Simone, who has been in the military for six years, will find out in the coming days what action the Army will take against her.