2005 Boasts Drastic Drop in Military Divorce

A recent study shows a steadily dropping divorce rate among military personal. Following the drastic influx in military divorce of 2004, this year showed a 61 percent decrease in the military divorce among officers alone. Col. Glen Bloomstrom, a U.S. Army chaplain believes that the drastic drop may be due to the Army’s effective marriage-counseling program. Col Bloomstrom commented, “We in the Army are conveying a sense of care for marriages and families.”

In addition to marriage counseling, the military has implemented new programs designed to expedite and simplify communication methods for military families. Special consideration is also being given to single military members who are considering marriage, in order to educate them regarding the struggles that married couples face in military families. Counseling young, single members of the military on marriage planning and decisions is intended to prevent bad marriages that will ultimately result in divorce.

There are many factors that are likely contributors to the high divorce rate in the military. Among the most common are long-term spousal separations, the stress and anxiety associated with combat and the difficulty of post combat adjustment. Currently the rate of divorce for military officers is approximately one in every 43 marriages. Divorces among enlisted soldier are substantially more frequent, averaging about one in every 28 marriages.

An army spokesperson claims that these figures are skewed because they do not account for military personal that are married to one another, falsely counting certain divorces twice in the calculation. However, discrepancies caused by this miscalculation are minor.

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