Forum: Author Hangout

I deployed to the Caribbean island nation of Grenada for Operation Urgent Fury, and later for Operation Island Breeze in the early-mid 1980's. My unit was the first time focused upon searching for weapons caches (and occasionally members of the PRA). We also provided Force Protection for a Special Forces ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha) and other personnel supporting them.

The ODA was there to train Grenadian Constabulary; all of them were "ancient" veterans of Vietnam and most were ROAD (Retired On Active Duty) {that term is a joke} and often encouraged we eager young paratroopers to conduct many of the training tasks (while they relaxed in the shade).

One of our improvisational "Hearts & Minds" activities was to rebuild several Catholic orphanages (which had been damaged by Cuban soldiers; apparently out of sheer cussedness).

I was told that some, possibly many of the kids in the orphanages were not "true" orphans; rather they were abandoned by their parents.

There were a number of street kids too who would ask us GIs for food, candy, etc. Not "begging" in the traditional sense, nor like modern panhandlers. They would just ask for stuff, sometimes offering to do chores or odd jobs. A couple boys in their early teens would skin-dive with snorkels, nets and spearguns to collect seafood for local restaurants (and give us some lobsters for letting them dive in a lagoon inside our security cordon for Point Salinas Airfield. (They would trade us additional seafood for a duffle bag full of MREs.)

As I recall, most boys left the orphanages around age 13 or 14 (to get away from the rules, it seems) and the girls would stay a few more years. Mild climate, and generosity/"Tradition" seems to have kept the street kids fed and clothed. While it was a "concern" to the community, I believe this was not more than 1% of the kids who were abandoned, and fewer who were actual orphans.

The veteran Special Forces soldiers mentored us (stringently) to not be overly generous, or else we would cause friction when we left and the community could not, or would not, equal our largess! We were a welcome stopgap as the people of Grenada rebuild their economy, and the tourist trade in particular.

My first deployment to Grenada was my first deployment, and I was barely 18. Yet in many ways it set the tone for many of my later deployments during 28 years of military service. Nearly everywhere we deployed, my unit, and/or volunteers, including me, would provide assistance to local orphanages.

I spent a significant amount of my career serving alongside special operations units; as well as several years in SOCOM. Even some of the gruffest soldiers would volunteer to provide assistance to orphans and other kids.

Nor were many of the kids in traditional orphanages.

Actually, they were.

Foster care is only intended as a short term solution, until the parents can resume care for them again or some other family member can take custody. Many do turn out to be long term solutions, but that is never the intent.

But all of the kids at orphanages had the parents give up all parental rights, had died with no next of kin to take them, or had those rights permanently stripped in court.

All no longer had legal guardians other than the state, and while the younger ones were often adopted legally into other families, the older ones (or those "not adoptable") often remained in them until they got their majority. As generally the closer they got to puberty, the harder it became to find them new families.

There are still "group home" facilities in the US, but all are only designed to house and care for the children until they grow up. Finding them new families is no longer part of the program.

Both of those are insignificant factors. One reason is the movement against institutions that also led to the closing of mental hospitals and institutions for the mentally handicapped in favor of group homes. A second reason is the decrease in the stigma of unmarried pregnancy.

I would doubt that. And it can be seen simply in the rapid decline by the late 1960's. First, the birth control pill rapidly reduced unwanted pregnancies. Then Roe V. Wade helped eliminate many that did happen.

I have actually had this conversation with my own kids. I am of the "Boomer" generation, and all of us knew several kids that had been adopted growing up. It was not uncommon at all, as well as inter-family adoptions. But my kids all told me they knew of no kids that had been adopted.

And honestly, in High School I only knew 2 gals that got pregnant and had their kids. By the late 1970's it was actually fairly rare to see a teen mother as there were "other alternatives" by that time.

And yes, I do see it now more often. But I do not think it was "stigma", as much as at that time the mothers seemed to have a firmer grasp on what the realities of having a child that young were. I knew a couple a few decades ago when I was working with a "College Age Youth Group" in my church, and all seemed to almost be in denial of what life would be like as an 18 or 19 year old single mother.

Thanks for the information Catman.