22 divorces in one Army company and the deployment isn't over yet

[Solly Mack]

Guess it's too late for Shrub to promote their marriages.



Last night was our monthly Leader's meeting and the number of divorces was one of the topics. We've had 22 since April 4, 2003.

We have 10 weeks to go on this deployment. We are a company of roughly 200, less than half of which are (were) married.

I'm just wondering if our numbers are higher or lower than other military companies. Just one more aspect of this war built on lies...

[GOPisEvil]

1. Ouch...22 divorces?

I'm glad my parents' marriage survived the frequent absences of my dad due to his military service. But then, he wasn't getting shot at much either...less stressful.

[Solly Mack]

2. I was surprised, too. I knew of several but 22????

So I have to ask myself..what are we doing wrong (we being the Rear D "leaders") that we couldn't help more.

[GOPisEvil]

3. I don't know...some people are just not cut out to be military spouses.

At least they can't handle the rigors of extended deployments. Think of the Guard and Reserve spouses who really didn't expect this sort of thing?

Being a military spouse is a thankless job, and sometimes very difficult. Some folks just have no idea.

[trogdor]

6. At least Guard/Reserve spouses live in "civilization."

Imagine being holed up at Fort Drum. It's winter. There's three feet of snow on the ground, and nine inches in your driveway with a four-foot drift in front of your garage door. Rear Detachment has already told you not to expect help shoveling yourself out.

Even if you could get out, where would you go? To work in Watertown? Puhleeze! Can you say, "would you like fries with that?" You'd be lucky if your paycheck covered child care with enough left for gas.

Your upstairs neighbor is a complete idiot. He has two large dogs that he leaves on the balcony outside in -30 weather while he goes to the club until it closes, while you get to listen to them bark. The MP's are little help; they tell you to take it up with Housing on Monday. It's Saturday night. When your neighbor the idiot returns and lets the dogs back in, they run around in the living room for half an hour, making your chandelier shake and knocking several pictures from the wall.

Your next-door neighbor is abusive and likes to scream at his wife at the top of his lungs at all hours. Again, unless the MP's catch him in the act, there ain't much they can do but tell him nicely to knock it off for the fifteenth time.

Your across the street neighbor has a teenager who hangs out with a bunch of shady characters. You did indeed manage to get this one kicked out of housing, but he was replaced with somebody who has even bigger dogs then your upstairs neighbor who menace the children.

Think this is a made-up horror story? This is life in the military 'hood, folks. Enjoy.

[GOPisEvil]

7. That's true...

...military bases can be desolate places when a deployment is on.

[trogdor]

4. Many of them are probably very young.

Life on a military base can be something of a culture shock, even if Dad is around. I've seen lots of them at Fort Drum when I was sentenced to the 10th Mountain Division. The Rear Detachment can only do so much.

Tell you one thing - I wouldn't recommend this lifestyle for anyone whose spouse isn't already fairly independent.

[Solly Mack]

5. True. The lack of independence in some of the spouses

has been astounding. I've held hands throughout this deployment for the most of basic of reasons...talking them into getting out of bed, for example. Not because they were depressed...but because "he wasn't there"


That's been a huge factor.