Reconsidering Deployment Lengths

Two major factors that contribute to high military divorce rates are limited financial income on the part of junior enlisted personnel with children and multiple long-term deployments. 

In addition to encouraging recruits at basic training not to rush into marriage through the distribution of such publications as Marriage and Military Life and The Survival Guide for Marriage in the Military, various proposals have been put forth to lower high military divorce rates. In an article entitled, "Married Teenage Warriors," Carlton Meyer, the editor of G2 Mil Quarterly, traced the history of military compensation and showed how offering family incentives to promote retention likewise encouraged many junior personnel to marry before they were prepared to cope with the challenges of marriage and military life. 

As a way of discouraging premature marriages that have been shown to have a negative impact on operational readiness, Meyer proposed that "E-3s and below receive equal pay and benefits, regardless of marital status." By offering marriage incentives (e.g., married housing, medical care for family members, BAH with dependents’ rate) only to E-4s and above, Meyer acknowledged that it would discourage married people from enlisting. However, given the small percentage of recruits that are married, he believed the benefits would far outweigh any disadvantages associated with implementing such a policy. Unfortunately, Pentagon officials have neither supported his proposal, nor have they endorsed training materials that can discourage junior enlisted from marrying in order to receive additional benefits that often prove inadequate to support a spouse and children before one is promoted to E-4 or E-5. 

In addition to cases involving financial problems on the part of junior enlisted with children, divorces are also often the result of problems that can occur when you separate couples on multiple occasions for long periods of time. The frequency and length of deployments vary from one branch of the military to another. Generally speaking, Air Force tour lengths to places like Iraq are the shortest (e.g., four months), and Army deployment periods are the longest (e.g., one year). Navy and Marine Corps deployments ordinarily last six to seven months. In commenting on differences in deployment lengths, General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently remarked, "It boils down to the way that each service employs its force, and how best then to assure that they get the most out of the people they have." 

As the Army undertakes its largest restructuring since World War II that includes new organizations being formed and other units being returned from overseas, it might wish to re-examine its deployment lengths for both its active and reserve components. How many soldiers have left the Army or divorced as a result of being deployed for a year or more at a time? Can the Army learn some valuable lessons from the Navy and the Marine Corps that discovered how marital problems increase significantly when couples are separated for more than six to seven months? Will the way the Army is being restructured, different from the way it was postured during the Cold War, allow for shorter deployment periods that can prove less damaging to marriage and family life? These are but some of the questions that Army policymakers may wish to consider as they acknowledge the relationship between family readiness and operational readiness.

Gene-Thomas Gomulka – “A voice for military families”
Columnist and author of The Survival Guide for Marriage in the Military available at www.plaintec.net

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