Army, Marine Corps Divorces on the Rise

by: Brandon Friedman

Wed Dec 03, 2008 at 03:37:03 AM EST


No surprise here:

WASHINGTON -- The divorce rate among soldiers and Marines increased last year as military marriages suffered continuing stress from America's two ongoing wars. There were an estimated 10,200 failed marriages in the active duty Army and 3,077 among Marines, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press for the budget year ended Sept. 30.

That's a divorce rate of 3.5 percent among more than 287,000 married troops in the Army, up from 3.3 percent in the previous fiscal year, according to Defense Department figures.

"With increasing demands placed on Army families and soldiers - including frequent deployments and relocations - intimate relationships are tested," said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.

What they don't count, however, are marriages that fail on account of combat deployments after soldiers and marines leave the active service.  They don't count failed relationships between fiancées, girlfriends, and boyfriends, either.  So without any empirical data to back it up, I'll throw out a guesstimate and suggest that all broken relationships combined are probably triple the number of actual divorces between married couples.  That would put us at over 10 percent of couples.

Based on my experience with all the soldiers I know, that sounds about right.
Brandon Friedman :: Army, Marine Corps Divorces on the Rise
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Army, Marine Corps Divorces on the Rise | 6 comments
Back Door Draft to Remain (0.00 / 0)
More dwell time soon, but stop-loss continues

Deploying troops should start to spend more time back home starting as early as this spring, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today. But the Army program known as "stop-loss" that forces soldiers on deployment orders who are close to their end-of-service dates to stay on duty, he said, will continue through 2009.


'Hearts and Minds, "The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there." -- President Lyndon Johnson
As a JAG guy.. (4.00 / 2)
the latter half of the deployment, I swear I had at least three guys a day come to me wanting to know how to start divorce proceedings. It was sad.

I'm on twitter.
The military has always been a divorce mill (0.00 / 0)
Because when you get "dependents" who are set adrift in an environment where they've been encouraged to be dependent, and who have no stability at home, what you get are more recruits.
It's probably much higher... (0.00 / 0)
It seems to me that almost half of the soldiers I encountered had been divorced or were going through one, and there's clearly a link between the time spent deployed and the rate of failed relationships.

One thing that isn't addressed here is how many soldiers are still listed as married, but are officially divorced.  As soon as a soldier gets divorced, they lose money on housing allowances, family separation, etc., and some younger soldiers are required to move back on post.  Since there's a financial disincentive to notify a unit that you're divorced, I'm sure there are many that never do.  

Great point. (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
Sad (0.00 / 0)
Few wives/husbands of soldiers and sailors give any thought early on as to what kind of life and marriage they'll have.  I don't think they ever have, it's nothing new.  It took my mother 19 years to split but I knew from babyhood she was resentful and unhappy the whole time.

Do any services have real-life premarital counseling for their members?  Done right, it might help a lot.  Then real support for military families even when the soldier is home.  It's just a very different life than most people expect.  There are tremendous positives for someone who makes an informed decision to marry into it.

Army, Marine Corps Divorces on the Rise | 6 comments
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