Being in the military takes a huge toll on your private life. With multiple deployments, in marriages where sometimes both spouses are in the military, can make it seem almost impossible to maintain what it takes to keep a marriage together. Even if you are in the States and your spouse is deployed, the months and months apart make it difficult keep any kind of martial cohesiveness. Even though military families today are able to use e-mail and video chats to keep in better touch, these tools still can't maintain the feelings of intimacy and togetherness that keep marital bonds strong.
Over half of all military personnel are married, and 70% of military personnel have children. The divorce rate for active-duty military personnel has risen from 2.6% in 2001 to 3.6% in 2009, surpassing the civilian divorce rate of 3.4%. In 2009 there were around fifty thousand military divorces. In response to the strain on families, the Pentagon has increased spending to a record $9 billion on family support programs, including more for child-care services and family counseling.
Military divorce numbers also do not include personnel who get divorced a year or two after leaving the military. Often times when the solider comes home, there is a huge attempt to rekindle the marriage and make the marriage work. Unfortunately, there are other factors involved, such as Post-Combat stress that undermine these attempts of saving the marriage.
There is also another factor not considered: many military marriages that are in trouble are maintained, at least officially, to retain benefits. It is not unusual for troubled couples in the military to remain married in order to continue receiving higher housing payments. A civilian spouse who divorces a service member loses his or her military health coverage.
Nearly 800,000 National Guard members and reservists have been called to active duty, since 9/11, the most since World War II. A half-million have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan - and 200,000 have served multiple tours. Nearly 100,000 Guard members and reservists are currently serving on active duty. The stresses on the families of these personnel is enormous.
Research has found that military women have the harder time staying married. Divorce rates are two to three times higher for female service members than for men. The highest divorce rate occurs with military women married to civilian men.
"Military families are stressed - really, really, really stressed," said Dr. Benjamin Karney, a professor of social psychology at UCLA who has studied military marriages for the Rand Corp., a California think tank that often does studies for the military. To read more about the Pentagon's steps to reduce the divorce rate in military personnel, please click on the link to read the entire story.
If you are thinking about divorce or facing a family law related matter, please see our website for more information on your legal options or call Ocala Divorce and Family Law attorney at the Law Office of Anne E. Raduns, PA to find out how we can help. We employ a client based approach, which means that we are selective in the cases we take so that we can be available to our clients. We spend time with you to thoroughly understand the facts of your case, so that we can provide you with a comprehensive and realistic legal evaluation. Our process begins with a half-hour low-cost consultation to analyze your case with you. Call for your consultation today.
