Divorces edge up again in 9th year of war

[unhappycamper]

Divorces edge up again in 9th year of war
By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Nov 27, 2009 15:50:48 EST

WASHINGTON — The toll for a nation long at war is evident in military homes: The divorce rate in the armed forces edged up again in the past year despite many programs to help struggling couples, and the rate now is a full percentage point higher than around the time of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

There were an estimated 27,312 divorces among roughly 765,000 married members of the active-duty Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps in the budget year that ended Sept. 30, the Pentagon said Friday.

That’s a divorce rate of about 3.6 percent for fiscal year 2009, compared with 3.4 percent a year earlier, according to figures from the Defense Manpower Data Center. Marriages among reservists failed at a rate of 2.8 percent compared to 2.7 the previous year.

Air Force Maj. April Cunningham, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said the changes from 2008 to 2009 were relatively small because of a myriad of programs offered by the services.

“All military services have a variety of programs focused on strengthening and/or enriching family bonds among couples,” she said. “We believe these programs are instrumental in mitigating the stresses deployment places on marriages.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/ap_military_divorces_112709/