MILITARY DIVORCE RATES PARTICULARLY HIGH FOR ACTIVE DUTY WOMEN

The day-to-day stresses of many marriages, such as finances and child care, might be too much for some married couples in the best of situations. Many military families in Texas face those same stressors on top of an already strained lifestyle. A 2012 study revealed that military divorce occurs at a significantly high rate.

It is not just the training or the weeks and months on end spent away from home that can peck away at the foundation of a military marriage. Men and women in combat zones sometimes return home with both physical and emotional trauma that might be difficult for their families to understand. When life-and-death becomes an active part of marriage, it might be more than some spouses can handle.

A whopping one in 27 military marriages falls apart. For active duty military families, this translates to a 3.5 percent divorce rate. For female Marine Corps members, the numbers are even grimmer. An active duty female Marine has a 9.4 percent chance of her marriage ending in divorce. One Marine surmises that this may be due to the rigors of acting and behaving as a Marine all day, every day.

Divorce may never be an easy choice to make, but for some military couples, divorce may seem inevitable. Rigorous training, long deployments and physical and emotional traumas in soldiers returning home might all play a factor in the high military divorce rate. The stresses on Texas military families may make marriage more difficult, but the lifestyle might also put added difficulties into the divorce process. Particularly when children are involved, when one spouse will remain active duty, it is important to carefully review pertinent rights before proceeding with a military divorce.