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All the time is a bit much. A battalion here and there were in a small fight or peacekeeping mission but the bulk of the Army was Monday through Friday most of the year. Only the troops in Korea went unaccompanied
In the 80s, I was a tanker in the Army and it wasn’t a Monday through Friday gig... Spent many... MANY weekends in the field AND training up for the field. If we weren’t in the field, their was CQ and Battalion Staff Duty and guard duty. Plus, if the command was “pizzed” off about something, your company was working on Saturday... To improve moral. Yes, if you were a clerk or whatever support troop, it was basically a M/F thing, but not for combat arms... Leading to plenty of divorces.
Plus, serving in an extremely high stress career field isn’t healthy for the home front either.
Fast forward to the 2000s and the wars in the ME, extremely high deployment for the Army and not for 6 months, but for a year to 15-18 months in many cases and this isn’t counting the training up BEFORE deployment either. You don’t need to be Einstein to figure out why the divorce rate, in the Army, spiked, especially after your second or third deployment. Being a senior NCO in Iraq in 2006-2007, plenty of guys were divorced or in the process of being divorced, which led to several suicides, which is a totally different topic.
And war does change people, both the ones serving overseas and the ones back home.
I know I’ll get flamed on this one, but the old saying that the “Army takes care of its own” is a falsehood. It’s a dog eat dog environment, just be honest about it and “family life” isn’t a priority, UNTIL it’s a priority. “I” excepted that and did 13 years on Active and finished up in the Reserve.
Honestly, out of all the branches, the Air Force seems to be the most family friendly branch... Just look at their housing verses the housing for the Army... Yes, the Army is getting better, but the Air Force is still leading the way on that issue.
Honestly, out of all the branches, the Air Force seems to be the most family friendly branch... Just look at their housing verses the housing for the Army... Yes, the Army is getting better, but the Air Force is still leading the way on that issue.
Yep I remember almost every shortage posting(where there is a shortage of one particular job and they temporarily fill it with someone surplus from another branch until they can get someone trained in that field down the chain usually within 4-6 months) resulted in that person switching branches despite the cut in rank.(your allowed to switch branches but they drop you down one paygrade)
Two of my sons are career Army. Between the two of them, they've had 5 wives. All the women were smart, well educated and beautiful. Probably the most prevalent reason for the breakups were they weren’t financially dependent and they didn’t want to put up with the challenges of being married to a soldier who was gone more than home.
I’ll just add that it’s all fun and games when you are in love with a big strong manly Ranger, but the reality is it’s a hard life.
Because we've been at war for 20 years. I was recently watching a WWII documentary and it stated that approximately 40 or 60 percent of returning servicemen got divorced. I don't recall the exact percentage, but it was one of those two numbers.
I don’t know the exact numbers but there was a spike in divorce rates post WWII. One of the factors was hastily arranged marriages by couples who believed the man might not survive the war. The 1940’s was a conservative place and pre marital sex was pretty much a taboo.
And when the soldier survived the war and returned home couples found out they didn’t really know each other and were not compatible. Women also had jobs too related to war production. So they realized they could be financially independent and could divorce if they were not satisfied with their husbands.
Up until the 90's people in the military actually divorced at a lower rate than the general population, then in the mid - late 90's it evened out but in the 2000's GI's actually have a higher divorce rate than the general population. What changed?
I remember when the bars outside of any military base would be packed with women on the days when the guys would finish basic training/boot camp especially in small military towns(towns that had more than one base or post). I used to work a civil service job that took me to a lot of bases.
You would think all the military benefits would take much of the stress out of a marriage, so what has changed?
What was supposed to be a highly trained professional Force has become a welfare case. Most military families are dependent on welfare, food stamps and other government programs. Medical care for dependent leaves them waiting in line at a civilian hospital. Dental is non existent and on and on.i see it as a retiree, I abandoned my military pension for a civilian pension. Inaction by Congress has destroyed the military
Because we've been at war for 20 years. I was recently watching a WWII documentary and it stated that approximately 40 or 60 percent of returning servicemen got divorced. I don't recall the exact percentage, but it was one of those two numbers.
I don't know about divorce rates but 50's Los Angeles saw its highest murder rates, larger than the crack gang wars of the 80s and 90s. It has been speculated that those Dragnet days had been partially caused by returning WWII and Korean War veterans.
My first duty station was in North Dakota, 1990, right before the First Gulf War.
There were many guys in my unit who had spent nearly 20 years in the military and Minot was their only duty station and they had never deployed, not even once. They did go on a week long training course or a two week TDY every once in great while, though. Obviously, this stability went a long way in helping a marriage thrive. The guy was home to help his wife deal with life’s myriad of problems.
Fast forward to today, and military guys (and women too) are in a non stop cycle of deployments. The only way to make it stop is to leave the military.
Just using me an example, I’ve been on over a dozen deployments in a 30 year career (some as a contractor after retirement). I remember some years where I spent over 330 days away from my assigned duty station, and this happened multiple times. The worst was when I was assigned to Spec Ops, we were gone literally all the time.
So in my experience, when the ops tempo goes up, it puts a strain on families.
I couldn’t imagine being at the same place for three years, Minot. Would have become a prison for me after one year. Homesteading is not military service.
I couldn’t imagine being at the same place for three years, Minot. Would have become a prison for me after one year. Homesteading is not military service.
We're not talking about people homesteading. We're talking about continuous deployments. As I mentioned earlier, I never homesteaded--I immediately requested another overseas assignment the moment I got back to CONUS.
But continuous deployments are a lot worse than an overseas assignment.
We're not talking about people homesteading. We're talking about continuous deployments. As I mentioned earlier, I never homesteaded--I immediately requested another overseas assignment the moment I got back to CONUS.
But continuous deployments are a lot worse than an overseas assignment.
you must have re-enlisted during that time. It would seem that was the time to change duty station. Obviously you did go overseas.
you must have re-enlisted during that time. It would seem that was the time to change duty station. Obviously you did go overseas.
I don't see a reason why I'd try to coordinatere-ups with changes of station.
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