Currently, spouses who divorce military members after being married for at least 10 years, can claim up to half of the serviceman/woman's pension when he/she retires. The problem is that historically, military forced separations cause an abnormally high numbers of divorces. Servicemen/women have an unfair disadvantage when it comes to protecting their interests in divorce proceedings while they're serving remotely overseas or in hostile environments. The current policy should either increase the number of years a military spouse must be married to the service member from 10 to 20 years. Or, it should mimic Puerto Rico's rule where spouses are not entitled to the service member's retirement pension regardless of the years of marriage.



