Relationships can survive deployment, but it takes awareness, self-control and the decision to communicate all along the way. No marriage or relationship is complete without it.
If you're willing to put in the time, commitment, and loyalty, it's possible to survive deployment as a couple. By preparing ahead of time with a game plan, you'll come out even stronger on the other side of the deployment — no matter how long it is!
Many relationships are able to flourish in spite of military deployments. However, deployments often bring about a number of risk factors for relationships. Communication challenges and the stress of military life may increase concerns about infidelity and the actual risk of infidelity occurring.
This really depends on the base he is stationed at. At some bases “single” (i.e. unmarried) service members are required to live in the barracks. And if that is the case, spouses cannot stay there. At other bases, single service members are allowed to live off base, and if they are off base, you can live with them.
Military relationships aren't easy, but they are worth it when you push through the hardest parts. Everyone has a different military relationship story, and you get to create your own.
Yes, the military still enforces the adultery rule
Servicemembers who get caught cheating could face a court-martial. Certain situations make it more likely that they will face consequences for their infidelity.
Military life brings additional challenges to couples, including: Frequent separations. Deployments and temporary duty assignments mean that military members spend more time away from home than the average civilian. Missing important events like anniversaries and birthdays can be hard for both members of the couple.
The average military deployment is typically between six and 12 months long. However, deployment lengths vary greatly from branch to branch, are situational and depend on several factors specific to each individual service member.
Being a dual-military couple is one of the few instances where a military member has the chance to deploy with their spouse. With the Married Army Couples Program, which helps place married service members in proximal units, some couples have the chance to spend their time overseas together.
These stages are comprised as follows: pre-deployment, deployment, sustainment, re-deployment and post- deployment. Each stage is characterized both by a time frame and specific emotional challenges, which must be dealt with and mastered by each of the Family members.
The Five Stages
The emotional cycle of an extended deployment, six months or greater, is readily divided into five distinct stages. These stages are comprised as follows: pre-deployment, deployment, sustainment, re-deployment and post-deployment.
Military members deployed away from home station for 90 days or longer may receive downtime of not more than 14 days compensatory time (4-day special pass IAW AFI 36-3003 and 10 days limited-duty time).
Military personnel seeking to get married can use a proxy marriage to tie the knot while deployed or otherwise geographically separated. The United States military recognizes proxy marriages as legal, binding marriages.
Deployment Success Rate: The percentage of successful deployments per release. Environment Provisioning Success Rate: The percentage of environments created successfully per release.
Post-deployment phase
Servicemembers return to their home installation, and prepare to "reintegrate" into normal life, with individual branches of service offering additional briefings, training, medical evaluations, and counseling to assist.
In Army parlance, this is a unit's “deploy to dwell” ratio. For active duty units, the Army believes a 1:3 deploy to dwell ratio is ideal. Under such a scenario, for example, for every 9 months deployed, a unit would spend 27 months not deployed.
Marital Relationships
Across the entire deployment cycle, couples, on average, become significantly less satisfied with their marriages and engage in less psychological and physical aggression than they reported prior to the deployment.
Military divorce rate statistics
Your chances of having your marriage end in divorce are even higher if you are a female member of the military. The divorce rate among women in the military is 4.54%. The divorce rate among men in the military, meanwhile, is 2.9%.
Military Divorce Rates
The divorce rate for all military personnel is about 3%. Marine Corps and Air Force troops have a slightly higher overall rate, at 3.3%. Officers have a lower rate, at 1.7%, while enlisted troops have a 3.5% rate.
The maximum punishment for adultery, defined in the Uniform Code of Military Justice as Extramarital Sexual Conduct, is a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for up to a year.
Although our marriages look different to those of our civilian counterparts, military families do not experience a higher rate of infidelity than those in civilian families, which is estimated to be about 1/3 of the population.
“Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes criminal the act of adultery when certain legal criteria, known as 'elements,' have been met.” These elements include: The service member had sexual intercourse with someone. The service member or their sexual partner was married to someone else at the time.