One of them is the difficulty in finding reliable child care on his drill weekends. Then there's the cost. Peterson Air Force Base, where Husted's Reserve unit is located, is one of 71 Air Force bases worldwide offering subsidized child care on evenings and weekends for children of active-duty airmen and civilian workers along with those of reservists and Air National Guard members. Neither the Air Reserve nor the Air Guard track how many training days their members miss due to child-care snafus, but officials with both organizations said it's not a major problem, at least so far as it's impact on unit readiness. On the other hand, it is a pressing concern for individual parents whose child-care plans have unexpectedly fallen through.
Most people have their child care in place.
Philip Nizoloski, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, said Air Guard leaders believe that while child-care problems haven't solely prompted people to leave the service, they do add to overall family pressures. Chief Master Sgt. Carolyn Rice, director of family readiness for the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson, said addressing the problem has been difficult. The Air Force program could be the solution to that problem because the service pays the providers a fee to make themselves available after hours and on weekends, regardless of whether any children are dropped off. One drawback, however, is that the program is offered only at active-duty bases.