Retirees from the United States military are subject to a group of laws that permit a former spouse to be entitled to a portion of the service-member's retirement benefits. These benefits include; up to half of the service-members pension, lifetime healthcare, life insurance benefits in the event of a service-members death and many others.

      The issue that this has created is a spouse of the service-member to be very greedy in the event of a divorce. The overall divorce rate for the military is 3.7% per year. With 1.4 million active and 850,000 reservist means that on average there are approximately 83,250 divorces every year across all the military. This means that someone who has a 20 year career has a 74% chance of being divorced. 

     Why this is important to know is that during the periods of long deployments and other factors related to the service-members obligations that cause strain on the marriage. Consequently the divorce rate is significantly higher in within the military as opposed to the rest of America. There are many factors as to why a couple may divorce, and infidelity is one of the largest factors. This means a large number of our nations fighting force is being distracted and extorted every year. Is this how we show our fighting men and women how we support them? Many divorces also take several years to finish because the spouse is wishing to delay the divorce date so they may get more money from the service-member. 

     The problem that has arisen from this, is that many of the spouses are in fact the abusers or cheaters in the relationship. There are many service-member who return from a deployment only to find that there entire house and bank account is empty. Only to find out later that their spouse has ran off with their new romantic interest with all the belonging and the money. The current laws in many states enables these actions without any recourse. This has a significant impact on our nations fighting force. 

   How can change help? Many of the spouses of service-members are good people. The spouses genuinely care for the service-member. However there are many who look at a service-member as a meal ticket for the future knowing the benefits that are entitled to them. These are the people who manipulate and take advantage of our men and women who defend this great nation. 

    What I am asking to change is that if a spouse of a service-member regardless of the service-members status; active, reserve, veteran, or retired, were ever to violate the service-member, the spouse would then forfeit any and all potential benefits from the service-members time in the military. Any of the following categories would satisfy the forfeiture of benefits. Make this so that the spouse has to prove that the service-member was the one at fault and not automatically be awarded. The service-member has sacrificed so much such as; deploying to areas and conducting missions all in the name of protecting freedom. While doing all this the service-member is somewhere they don't want to be, doing something they don't want to do, when they don't want to do it, and most of all risking their life while doing it. Here is your opportunity actually show that you mean it when you tell a veteran "thank you for your service". 

Abuse - Physical, Sexual, Verbal/Emotional, Mental/Psychological, Financial/Economic, Cultural/Identity. Should not be restricted to only these categories, but should definitely include these.

Addiction - Drugs (Illegal and prescription), Alcohol, Sex, Shopping, Gambling. Should not be restricted to only these categories, but should definitely include these.

Abandonment - If the spouse were to leave the family home without warning or without communication. 

Adultery - The pursuit of a romantic relationship whilst still married.