Today's Officer - Winter 2007 - (Page 14) Marriages with one spouse on active duty can be difficult to sustain, but what happens when both spouses are members of the military? Find out how four dual-military couples make it work. Double Duty A By Kellie Rowden-Racette AH, MARRIAGE. Each year more than 2 million couples enter into the time-honored institution amid a flurry of smiles, dresses, rings, caterers, and notions of living happily ever after. For almost half of these couples, however, the reality of sharing a life with another person loses its allure before they reach their 15th anniversary. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there were almost 1 million divorces in 2005. Military marriages are not immune to what is occurring to the population at large. More frequent deployments and increasingly hazardous working conditions can make stress levels soar — and that’s with just one spouse serving on active duty. How, then, do dual-military couples fare? In 2006, DoD announced there were a reported 47,672 joint-military couples in all services, up slightly from 47,069 in 2002. At the same time, however, the military divorce rate also has been increasing. Although there aren’t any servicewide statistics available, Army officials report that in 2004, there were 10,477 divorces among its active duty personnel — nearly doubled from 5,600 in 2001. 14 TODAY’S OFFICER Winter 2007/08 “[Though] the military is really a microcosm of life in general, the stress level is higher in the military [because of ] constant relocation and extended duties,” explains Kay Poggi, a family counselor who works with military families stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif. “Long-term separations can put any couple at risk.” But statistics aside, many dual-military couples do survive — and thrive — while both serve on active duty. The four dual-military couples profiled here vary in their age, stage in their careers, and personal goals, but they do share a couple things in common — their commitment to service and their commitment to each other.
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