One of the greatest contributions to service member suicides in the military is the actions of former spouses. Many cheat or extort funds leaving them betrayed and broke. Often years later when the member retires from the service this ex-spouse uses a federal law passed in 1981 to extort as much as 75% of service-member's retirement pay.
This is a federal sanctioned alimony! It also assumes the ex-spouse is perfect and deserves the pay, regardless of the divorce agreement. Divorce courts and states need to determine terms of divorce, this is not a legal power of the federal government. Also retired pay is a retainer pay, not a pension because retirees can be called up.
Give our people a break and stop forcing them to abide by a law far more strict than private civilians have to abide