Those who are in military marriages understand the challenges presented by a long-term deployment. While the deployed service member may be thousands of miles away, his or her family will have to learn to adapt to the absence. In addition, each spouse will likely be living under very different circumstances and it would be understandable if they started to feel emotionally detached from one another.
Given these difficult circumstances, you might think that if a couple can remain married until the deployment ends that they would be able to transition back to their lives together. After all, the hard part is over, right? Well, unfortunately, this is not always the case.
According to a study conducted by the Rand Corporation, 97 percent of military divorces actually occur after the deployed spouse returns home. Moreover, the higher number of cumulative months the service member spent deployed, the greater the risk of divorce.
Also, service members who were engaged in hostile deployments had a greater risk for divorce than their counterparts who were in non-hostile deployments. Additionally, female service members who spent time in deployment had a greater likelihood of divorcing than similarly situated male service members.
What these results seem to bear out is that deployment can place a tremendous strain on a military marriage. And sadly, that strain is often at its worst when the service member returns home. So, if continuing your marriage has become unfeasible since the end of a deployment, remember, this is not uncommon.
What matters now is that all important issues pertaining to the divorce be handled properly and fairly. A Texas military divorce attorney may be able to help you work through an agreement regarding child custody, child support and division of military benefits.