How long does it take/how do you get divorced in the military?
My good friend has sadly been blinded by love until recently. Her husband is a marine and is worth jack ****. It is a long story but in essence, he cheats on her, parties, spends money,never signed her up for ANY benefits and is basically using her for marriage and seperation pay. I mean, even his mom told her to leave him. He is out of the military in August. What can be done here? Would reporting it to his CO do anything? How long would the process of divorce take (Orange County, CA)? He has openly said he won’t give her a divorce, I guarantee that is so he doesn’t lose his pay. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
One Response
Amber T
16 Jan 2010
My husband is a marine but I’m not the utmost authority on divorce in the military. We almost divorced due to his behavior but we have both committed to working it out. Now your Friend needs to go to her husband’s CO not his gunny or his staff Sargent but the top guy….the gunny and staff co’s tend to do whatever it takes to cover the marine’s butt. Tell the CO everything tell him how the husband parties and doesn’t take care of his family how he never signed her up for benefits. The CO will file a report and the husband will face a NJP (Non Judicial Punishment) or some type of discipline whcih could result in his loss of rank/pay. About the divorce she can go to base legal but the thing with them is they ONLY handle non contested divorces so if he is planning on contesting she will have to retain a civilian lawyer. Make sure if the CO does do any paperwork she takes it to her lawyer. In the state of California once the paperwork is filed through the court it takes 6 months to be final (I’m @ Camp Pendleton). During that time the wife gets to stay in the base housing assigned to them and he is moved to the single marine barricks. If she fears that he will retaliate against her physically she can ask the CO to place an MPO (Military Protective Order) on her and her husband but that is only good ON BASE she would need to file a protective order out in the nearest town to be good off base. Also take that to the lawyer…..any documentation she can gather needs to go to the lawyer.