When a member is deployed almost every other year it wreaks havoc on their families.  My granddaughter and her husband are in this category, like many of their Army friends.

It would be very interesting to see the rate of divorce by the branch of service. 

BARBARA C.

Montgomery, Alabama

I too presumed a decade of sustained wartime deployments by U.S. ground combat forces would have taken a special toll on Army and Marine Corps marriages.  But divorce rate data compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center don’t bear this out.

In fiscal 2011, the overall military divorce rate was 3.7 percent – 2.1 percent for officers and 4.1 percent for enlisted.

The Army’s overall divorce rate was also 3.7 percent, matching the military’s overall rate.  The rate for divorce was 2.5 percent for Army officers and 4.0 percent for enlisted soldiers.

The Marine Corps’ divorce rate last year was slightly below the military’s overall rate at 3.6 percent.  Among Marine officers, the rate was 1.8 percent, and 3.9 percent for enlisted Marines.

The Air Force reported the highest divorce rate among the four Department of Defense branches at 3.9 percent.  It was 1.7 percent among AF officers but 4.6 percent for enlisted.

The Navy’s overall divorce rate was 3.6 percent last year, matching the Marine Corps.  The rate was 4.0 percent for sailors and 2 percent among naval officers.

The most dramatic divorce rate disparity occurs between genders in service. The overall divorce rate last year was 8.0 percent for service women versus only 3.1 percent for men.  A similarly wide gender-related disparity on divorce rates is seen across every branch of service and goes back many years. – Tom Philpott

REAL HEALTH CARE MYTH

I am one military retiree who was promised health care for life each time I reenlisted. I know others promised the same.  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), in effect, is calling all service personnel who were promised free health for life liars.

The senator says that when he gets his reserve retirement and becomes eligible for TRICARE, based on his own income, he will be able to afford to pay a higher premium than someone who retired as an E-7 or E-8.  My understanding is that, as a senator, he will have free medical for life.  So why would he want to use TRICARE?

ROBERT SEPPI

Via email

Free lifetime health care for members of Congress truly is a popular myth.   Lawmakers are offered the same menu of health insurance options as federal civilian workers, the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP).

Depending on the plan selected from that FEHBP menu, lawmakers, like federal civilians, must pay the required premiums, deductibles and co-payments. This is true in retirement too.

On average, out-of-pocket costs for FEHBP beneficiaries are set high enough to cover 28 percent of plan costs, and costs rise, every year unlike TRICARE plan fees.

Members of Congress are allowed access to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., usually for emergency care.  But their health insurance plans are billed for military health care provided. -- Tom Philpott

Senator Graham is at least partially right.  I served as a recruiter for the Army in the late 1970's and I never promised anyone health care for life.  And I never told a single lie.

I can see where some people could understand they were promised healthcare for life. The U.S. government has a system written by lawyers, and, in most cases, understood only by lawyers.  And it is not what I say, but what you understand me to say.

MARSHALL JACKSON

Via email

I don't know when Senator Graham became a member of the armed forces.  I did in 1955.  When interviewed by a recruiter in Birmingham Ala, I was told if I served long enough to retire I would have medical care for life.  I also was told the Air Force had programs for basketball.

Did I become a member of the Air Force for lifetime medical care?

No. I was 17 years old and had no medical problems.  Medical care was not important to me; basketball was, and I joined the new basketball program when it started.

Senator Graham can call me a liar; he was not there.

RONALD C. CHAPPELL

Via email

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