by Enoc Flores

Created on: December 18, 2010

Marriage in itself is an institution that takes time and effort to maintain. There are many factors that may determine its success or its failure and this institution takes a new meaning when one spouse (or both) is in the military. This difference can be seen in the divorce rate between non-military couples (50%) and military couples (75%) according to army studies. However with proper guidance and communication, any couple can maintain a successful marriage in the military.

Some of the factors from the military life that influence negatively a marriage is the danger involved,  the time spent at work, and the separation due to deployment. The level of danger that a military member may be exposed is directly associated with the type of job the individual performs. This is whether the member works with airplanes, as an administrator, in the infantry, as an intelligence officer, public relations, etc. The level of danger for an infantry man will be higher than the level of another one working as an administrator. Understanding this and knowing where the military spouse fits, It should decrease the negative factor.

The military life is a very demanding and this may be experienced by the long working hours. Military members get paid in a salary basis rather than an hourly basis. Even though military units may want to work in a forty hour schedule, there may be some long days. A married couple needs to understand that this is a simple fact of the military life. If they agreed to start a marriage under these conditions, then it should not affect the marriage because it was mutual decision. If opinions changed overtime or for any other reason, then there should be discussion of whether it is a good idea to re-enlist or leave the military life. The decision of continuing a military life should not be based on “money security” or because it’s a “career choice” and especially should not be made by just one party. Many marriages end in the military because one party did not consult, discussed, or even took into account the other individual’s views.    

Deployment time is another factor that needs to be taken into account before getting married. Understand that not all branches have the same deployment lengths. An example of this can be seen with the Army which has 12 to 15 months deployments and Marines whom only have 6 to 8 months. The frequency also depends on the job. Some fields may require a constant deployment while others may never be deployed. In 2007 the Marine Corps Times published an article that said only 30 percent of the total force deployed to a war zone. 70 percent of the entire Marine Corps deployed to other countries like Japan or simply did not deploy.  Proper guidance in the spouse’s military field, status, and enlistment length should help any couple to maintain a marriage without increasing its failure rate by 25 percent.  

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