I mostly lurk, but saw this today and wanted to share it with the forum. Deployments are taking a terrible toll on military families.

Army Annual Divorce Rates Jump 40 Percent Army officials reported 10,477 divorces within the active-duty force in fiscal 2004, a number that has climbed steadily since 9/11. In fiscal 2001 the Army reported about 5,600 divorces; in 2002, more than 7,000; and in 2003 nearly 7,500. During the past two years, the divorce rate has been higher among Army officers than their enlisted counterparts, reversing a previous trend, officials said.
In fiscal 2003, the Army reported almost 1,900 divorces among its 56,000 married officers. The following year, that number jumped by 74 percent to more than 3,300. To help military families endure the hardships military life often imposes, the Army has launched outreach programs ranging from support groups for spouses of deployed troops to weekend retreats for military couples.


xring

I think it's a good thing the military is looking at these statistics and that they are launching outreach programs.

Having been a military wife with and XH who went through two 1 year deployments, I can say they really need to look at infidelity specifically.

From what I saw, affairs were in the divorce equation almost every single time. That's not even looking at the number of spouses who didn't realize their spouse (whether the deployed spouse or the one left at home) was sleeping around.

It's sad to see and VERY common.