Ana Lucia Gnecco, a U.S. Navy sailor, has been jailed in Florida for allegedly deserting her post after giving birth to her daughter. She was arrested at her parents’ home Saturday and is on military hold in a Broward County jail.
Gnecco is a seaman quartermaster who welcomed her daughter into the world in August and was due back to her post in Portsmouth, Virginia, on Jan. 14. However, she never showed up to work.
The arrest was the last resort," Christina Johnson, a Navy public affairs officer for the medical center, said. "You're going to want to try and work with the sailor to get them back because the consequences for desertion are serious. She was in contact with her command and the Navy's arm that would bring her back to duty. All efforts were made to get her back to work, but she chose to stay there."
The Navy considers any failure to return after 30 days to be desertion. Gnecco enlisted in 2014 and is on contract until 2019. Her father Armando Rodriguez is unsure of the reason why she didn’t return to work but assumes it revolves around her baby.
“The baby could be the reason, We could assume that having a baby might not go well with serving in the military,” he said. “I hope that she goes back up there and they have a hearing and she is released. There is no point in keeping her.”
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