At midnight Tuesday, "Don’t Ask, Don't Tell" expired, and Navy Lt. Gary Ross married his boyfriend of 11 years in Vermont. The couple had traveled from their home in Arizona so they could openly marry before their loved ones.
When you are in the military, you know you are going to be deployed someday. When you are actually called to military duty and scheduled to be deployed away from your family, a range of emotions are unleashed throughout your family unit: sadness, pride, loneliness, fear, anger, confusion and stress. You manage the feelings by both acknowledging the negative and also preparing emotionally and practically for the separation in a pro-active way.
14 comments and questions that military wives never want to hear.
As I started packing to head home from vacation, I flipped on the news. After a week of dancing, competition, pool time, dancing, more pool time and more dancing, it was a shock to find myself watching on the ground footage of a major firefight in Afghanistan. For more than five hours, American soldiers were pinned down. Seven medi-vac units went in with one pilot being shot mid-flight. Final toll as of airing…6 Dead, 7 Wounded.
Let's face it, the stories of infidelity in military marriages run rampant. And shows like Army Wives and movies like Jarhead help perpetuate the idea that military marriages are constantly plagued by infidelity. Meanwhile, the divorce rate among military couples is twice as high as in the general population. Don't let this happen to you. Here are five great tips for keeping your military marriage strong despite deployment, separation and frequent relocation
Ultimately, the choice to stay positive and supportive during lengthy deployments must be made by both parties and when one falters, the other one must stay strong enough to see them though.
This video episode: Push presents for your expectant wife, military lets couples live together in Iraq, and college women would put career ahead of family.
The good news is that divorce among military officers appears to be returning to normal. The bad news is that divorce among the enlisted ranks is still up. And the really bad news is that divorce among women in the military is rapidly increasing.
In a move to keep military families together, the US Army is now allowing married couples to share quarters in Iraq. These couples are housed in a cluster of trailers that has been dubbed 'married row.' The hope is that this will ease some of the hardship on deployed couples and keep reenlistment rates strong.
