Jennifer ~*Justified1/2*~

War-zone deployments contribute to failed unions

NEW YORK — While U.S. casualties steadily mount in Iraq, another toll is rising rapidly on the home front: The Army’s divorce rate has soared in the past three years, most notably for officers, as longer and more frequent war zone deployments place extra strain on couples.

“We’ve seen nothing like this before,” said Col. Glen Bloomstrom, a chaplain who oversees family-support programs. “It indicates the amount of stress on couples, on families, as the Army conducts the global war on terrorism.”

Army offers help
Between 2001 and 2004, divorces among active-duty Army officers and enlisted personnel nearly doubled, from 5,658 to 10,477, even though total troop strength remained stable. In 2002, the divorce rate among married officers was 1.9 percent — 1,060 divorces out of 54,542 marriages; by 2004, the rate had tripled to 6 percent, with 3,325 divorces out of 55,550 marriages.


With divorce rates that have risen more sharply than other service branches, the Army has broadened its efforts to help — offering confidential counseling hot lines, support groups for spouses, weekend couples’ retreats, even advice to single soldiers on how to pick partners wisely. Bloomstrom says he wants all 2,400 of the Army’s chaplains to be available for marriage-support work.

Staff Sgt. Allen Owens, a 15-year Army veteran, and his wife, Linda, praised a recent marriage retreat that they and 20 other couples from Fort Campbell, Ky., participated in with their chaplain at a hotel in Nashville, Tenn.

Reconnecting on a retreat
Owens was part of a 101st Airborne Division unit that advanced into Baghdad in the early phases of the Iraq war, and he expects at least one more stint in Iraq. That would again leave his wife alone with their four children. The weekend retreat, he said, offered a chance to “decompress and do an in-depth study of your relationship and your personalities.”

“Even if there’s nothing going wrong,” Linda Owens said, “it’s a great way to learn about your spouse.”

While some of the Army’s programs aim to prepare couples for their first deployment-related separation, others try to help couples with the often-difficult adjustments when a spouse returns from combat-zone duty to a mate who has been shouldering extra responsibilities at home.

“Our hope is to change the culture,” Bloomstrom said. “Initially there’s a stigma about any program to do with relationships. We need to teach that there’s nothing wrong with preventive maintenance for marriage.”



Second tour a tipping point

Martha Rudd, an Army spokeswoman, attributed the recent surge in divorces to the stress and uncertainty caused by a stepped-up deployment cycle.

“An awful lot of people are going back to Iraq for a second tour — that must be hard to take,” she said. “You can get through one tour, but then you think, ’Please, no more.”’

Bloomstrom said the high divorce rate among officers was no surprise because they bear the brunt of implementing major changes in Army operations, often working 18 or more hours a day.

“Every aspect of the Army is changing,” he said. “We’ve got some very loyal, dedicated military professionals stepping up to the plate, sometimes to the detriment of their families.”

Sylvia Kidd, director of family programs for the private Association of the U.S. Army, urges military couples to seek help when needed but fears many spouses are too isolated.

“So many of these couples are very young — they tend to get married just before deployment, and then the wife is here alone and doesn’t know what to do with herself,” Kidd said. “The people who need support the most are the least likely to go get it.”

Problem could get worse

For those troops who do divorce, military breakups can pose unique legal and logistical challenges, especially when one spouse is deployed overseas.

Mark Sullivan, a former Army lawyer who now practices privately in Raleigh, N.C., says soldiers in often-deployed units may have trouble winning child custody and — when posted abroad — arranging visits from their children. In one recent case, Sullivan has represented a Tennessee father whose ex-wife is now seeking custody of their daughter because the man’s National Guard unit was sent overseas.

Kidd said the divorce problem could get even worse, as long the campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere require frequent deployments.

“All kinds of couples have problems, but they don’t necessarily break up,” Kidd said. “When you add the additional stress of these separations, it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

© 2005 The Associated Press.

Lain

Interesting. Really interesting indeed. I'm gonna wait until what others have to say before finally making a comment on my own.

UnsilentMajorty

Part of the problem is the "backdoor" draft that keeps people enlisted long after they should be serving -- Meaning, people are doing three, four duties in Iraq alone because the armed forces can't make their recruiting goals -- This is fact. This isn't partisan rhetoric. Look it up -- Because a lot of the public does not see the invasion of Iraq as a just war, or even part of the War on Terror that this administration keeps trying to sell to people.

While there will always be problems when one spouse is serving... Especially, in a live combat zone where they are fighting for their life in every sense of the word... It is being exaserbated because of the re-enlistment tricks that are being used to keep redeploying men and women who have served more than there fair share of duty and should probably not be serving any more for a number of reasons -- Leaving a spouse at home with children being one of the major ones all things considered.

Also, what the article doesn't mention is that a lot of soldiers are coming back with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which makes them paranoid, fearful and distrustful of ANYONE... Inlcuding, their wife/kids... And they cannot re-adjust to civilian life after having been in "Hell" for one, two, sometimes three years and this is a major reason why a lot of these family units don't fair well once the soldier returns home. The father/mother turns to Alcohol, or drugs to drown their pain/paranoia and it only gets worse from there...

Lexis

Its very sad...these people go to war for their country but lose so much personally. Yet another reason we should be thinking of the soldiers out in war zones and their families.