divorce rate for military

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Divorce rates among soldiers and Marines rose last year as military marriages suffered the constant stress of America's two ongoing wars. There were 10,200 failed marriages in the active-duty military and 3,077 among Marines, according to estimates obtained by The Associated Press for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Divorce Rate For Military

According to the Department of Defense, the divorce rate is 3.5 percent among more than 287,000 married members of the military, up from 3.3 percent the previous fiscal year.

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"With increased demands on Army families and Soldiers, including frequent deployments and relocations, intimate relationships are put to the test," said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.

New data show that 3.7 percent of the more than 84,000 married Marines divorced in fiscal year 2008, compared with 3.3 percent in 2007. The Marine Corps called the increase statistically small and said officials would have to to study more thoroughly.

"However, Marine Corps leadership is well aware of the burden military families carry during war," said spokesman Col. Dave Lapan. “Our leaders, from the commander on down, are paying serious attention to the tension.

Some veterans and family groups question whether the Pentagon's numbers are too low, saying they don't account for the many who divorce after leaving the service. Groups cannot provide other ratings.

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"The divorce rate has gone up -- there's no doubt about that -- it's kind of a predictable domino effect of this pace of operations," Paul Ryckhoff of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said in a recent interview. "And that's not even counting the number of strained marriages," but we still stick together.

But Defense Department officials say they are keeping the divorce rate lower than it might otherwise be, thanks to efforts in recent years to support couples facing unprecedented breakups and other hardships as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The long and repeated deployments required of many soldiers are widely blamed for placing unprecedented stress on military spouses. A husband and wife at home have to run the family and the household without a partner. The strain has also contributed to higher suicide rates and mental health problems in the military.

The divorce rate remained at 3.5 percent for the Air Force this year and fell slightly to 3 percent from 3.2 percent for the Navy.

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Women in the military typically suffer a higher rate of failed marriages than men, a trend that continued last year. Military women divorce at a rate of 8.5 percent compared to 2.9 percent of men. Marine Corps women divorced at a rate of 9.2 percent compared to 3.3 percent of married men.

There is no comparable system for tracking civil divorces. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the divorce rate for the general population was 3.6 per 1,000 in 2005, the latest statistics directly available; was the lowest since 1970.

The per capita divorce rate differs from the second method of calculation, the percentage of marriages that eventually end in divorce or divorce. That year, the CDC reported that 43 percent of all first marriages end in divorce within 10 years.

Military figures also do not talk about troubled but intact marriages. In mental health surveys conducted in Iraq, about 15 percent of service members said they intended to divorce when they returned home.

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"Military families continue to support their soldiers and help those in need," Boyce said, noting that 58 percent of soldiers in today's military are married. "America is currently in the third longest war in its history. This is the first protracted conflict since the revolution in which a volunteer army has been involved.'

Military programs aimed at helping couples include Army chaplains' "Strong Bonds," which help single soldiers make wise decisions about partners and build lifelong relationships; a course for couples and a family course that teaches couples with children to stay close and raise children well.

Officials also worked to improve the quality of life for families by funding a variety of programs and services, such as health care, better schools, youth services, and child care.

The Marines offered workshops to teach couples how to manage conflict, solve problems and communicate better. The Navy started a similar program, using weekends for couples.

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Soldiers also receive mental health training in a program called Battlemind, which teaches about common challenges at home as they adjust to family life. Larry Lucy, pictured, was deployed to Iraq three times and is survived by (from left) daughter Nicole, 12; wife, Dan; son Chad, 5; and a daughter on April 18, not pictured. The Levkis family, pictured Thursday, lives in Manhattan, where Dena is raising three children while her husband is away at war. Lions have learned to handle deployment, but many military marriages end in divorce. Divorce rates have increased in Riley and Geary counties since 2003.

Manhattan? Between his second and third deployments to Iraq, Larry Lucy's bags were unpacked and stacked in the middle of his bedroom floor.

These bags did not allow his wife Dena to forget that since the beginning of the war her husband had been nowhere more than at home.

They were a nagging reminder that the deployment process — crying goodbyes, instant messaging every day, figuring out how to juggle kids, school and work alone, then learning to adjust when dad comes home — starts first.

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In early September, Larry Lucey, a Black Hawk pilot with the Fort Riley Medical Evacuation Unit, returned to Iraq. He will be gone for 15 months.

"You put this shell on your heart because you have no choice." Because if you open your heart completely, you're going to get heartbroken again," said Dena Leucci. "And you can't." Not with the little people who depend on you.'

According to divorce lawyers, researchers and families, after four years of war, as soldiers return to Iraq for the third and fourth time, the breakdown of marriages is starting to show.

From Pete Robertson's decades of experience as a divorce attorney near Fort Riley, he knows that whenever troops deploy, there is an uptick in divorce filings after they return home.

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His theory applies to Riley and Geary counties, where most Fort Riley families live. From 2003 to 2006, the divorce rate increased 35 percent in Riley County and 15 percent in Geary County.

Manhattan-Junction City divorce attorney Linnea Alt, whose 60 to 70 percent of clients come from a military base, has seen an increase in filings.

"Our workload has increased," she said. "I think most divorce lawyers in this area are pretty overwhelmed."

This spring, a Department of Defense-funded study found that deployment can strengthen marriages. This goes against what has been held for years: with the deployment of hostilities comes the breakdown of marriages.

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But a study by Walter Schumm, a professor in the School of Family and Human Services at Kansas State University, took a different look at how deployments affect marriages.

Before the Second Gulf War, Shum studied soldiers who served on peacekeeping missions in Egypt. In that study, he found that the divorce rate for soldiers was about 21 percent within two years of returning home.

Data collected after Operation Desert Storm showed divorce rates as high as 70 percent in some pockets of soldiers, Shum said.

In the spring of 2006, just after an Army unit returned from Iraq, Shum surveyed 337 soldiers at Fort Riley. He found that 12.5 percent of soldiers said they were having marital problems, 6.1 percent said they were likely to get divorced, and 12.2 percent said they would divorce.

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"That's pretty high because 2 to 4 percent is a whole year and it's a snapshot in time," Shum said.

A significant portion of those who come to the Alta law firm are young soldiers who have married just before deployment.

"They get married right before they leave, don't have a long-term relationship, come back and find they're incompatible," Alt said.

Janet Crowe, associate professor of family studies and human services at Keyshen State, knows the strain a marriage can have. She remembers being a new mom while her husband was away in Germany for several months.

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"They face the same stresses that young families face, and on top of that are the stresses of military life in general and deployment in particular," Crowe said. "And then there's going to be a lot of newlyweds in Geary County who may be 2,000 miles away from mom or dad or Aunt Betty to be there to support them."

Col. Glenn Bloomstrom, chaplain at Fort Leavenworth, said many young couples are still developing the much-needed "roots" of a relationship.

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