Why would junior enlisted Soldiers get into contract marriages?

IMO accusing commanders and Sr NCOs of criminal acts and maybe even treason approaches sedition for enforcing regulations. IF you don't like the UCMJ and regulations get congress to change it.

A marriage of convenience between two soldiers does not even come close to a "pre-nup", which happens to be a matter allowed by law. Don't like that either? Change the laws.

I have seen contract marriages turn into really ugly situations when at the end of tour or tours, as they gamed the system for preferential assignments and then one member of the "marriage" finds a better deal. Contract marriages to get out of the barracks are a marriage entered into under false pretenses and in fact financial gain.

If you are comfortable with that, and the premise of your post I am glad you never served in my units.

MSgt, those are some fine thoughts, thank you. When I was in the Navy about 20 years ago, I didn’t think the barracks was that bad at all. I mean it did vary from command to command as some were like hotels in a few aspects, and others, well the term “major shithole” comes to mind. I keep up with a lot of what’s going on in the military, may it be through friends or even reading about it on sites just like this, and I have seen a massive downward trend in the quality of life of those that are junior enlisted and living in the barracks. One of the worst stories I’ve recently heard was about the naval barracks in Japan not having locks on the doors that were in any form of basic working order. That is just sad.

As this problem crosses a spectrum consisting of all our uniformed services, perhaps there should be some DoD-level research put into coming up with viable policy options, after all it’s the year 2020 already and we still have the very same problems that you would remember from your very own junior enlisted days. Mine were in the 90s and it seems not much had changed.

The very first thought that comes to mind with me is that these “kids” are in fact old enough to sign on for all the rights and responsibilities of being in the worlds finest military. Yes, the military, a term that goes along with “not being ease”. We have soft kids that can’t help, but to bitch, moan, and complain in every generation. Barracks life is a staple of being a junior enlisted member. Though this group should not complain about such staples, a level of fairness is most definitely indicated which is why I think the policy needs to be revised at the DoD level, not the command, or even service level. An upgraded uniform policy has been needed for several decades.

I personally do not have the answers. I don’t believe any one individual on here could have the answers. The answers could only be derived from looking at aspects that affect every service, command, and location in order to enact a fairness to a policy that will take decades to properly craft, even if they “get it right” the first time.

Now, just because I don’t have the answers, does not mean that I don’t have potentially viable thoughts. Some of those thoughts, at least the ones I could brainstorm in the next minute or two include:

1. The military is just that, and comes with centuries of traditions along with good order and discipline. Junior enlisted are expected, and always will be expected to follow certain rules, and for the sake of tradition some of those rules should not change, they should however be uniform amongst all our uniform services, and allow for basic human dignity.

2. The barracks must meet certain standards. Period. It needs to be DoD policy that those standards are complete, and that there will be layers of accountability to maintain said standards, and in turn the quality of life of our junior enlisted. Timeframes must be integrated into those standards, so for example, a basic need like a door lock should be fixed no longer than one business day after a service request in properly tendered. Larger issues, such as working washer and dryers, they are a necessity, but understandably take longer to fix, so arbitrarily three business days per broken machine would be a fair turnaround time on such a repair. We must not forget, without ease of access to washers and dryers, uniforms will look like shit, and the problems will snowball from issue A to B to so on.

3. As long as there is a DoD-wide level playing field there will be less complaints and a higher degree of satisfaction with barracks life. This said, less junior enlisted may want the burden of living in town, or the simple convenience of living on base.

4. Barracks inspections are part of military tradition, as long as an updated policy is included to ensure that they have a DoD-wide checklist to ensure that there is an adequate level of cleanliness without being over invasive, I believe this may help resolve part of the problem. We must remember that inspections are a right of passage in the military, and that they should not go away. Uniform inspections won’t, why should barracks inspections?!

5. The guidelines for BAH (or whatever it’s called these days) should also be revised, I feel that by no means an E-1 to E-3 that is not married should be living off base. Period. E-4 and higher should not be prevented from doing so, they paid some time to get to this point.

6. Married life, especially when children are involved add many extra layers to the equation, and it’s totally understandable how when not on deployment, junior enlisted that are home with their family off base should be able to spend the time with their children as there will be long periods that the kids will not be able to see their parents, and sadly some don’t return home at all. It’s hard for a young “kid” to get this concept if they never experienced it, but there’s much truth to it.

7. Junior enlisted members of all services should require two things to be authorized to “tie the knot”, the first being command approval to weed out the bullshit, the second is a screening followed by premarital counseling by a command chaplain. Such counseling should not be religious in nature, and could even be done by other professionals, though a social worker or psychologist may carry a bit too much stigma when there are chaplains ideally suited for this job. Premarital counseling has been shown time and again to predict much lower divorce rates, it asks tough questions and seeks answers for those questions that could make or break a marriage. I really don’t see any use case, even outside the military where one won’t be beneficial.

So, those are enough ideas where I can stop here. Some may like these, others may hate them. I’m curious what anyone reading thinks. I hope this does lend some insight not just into the question, but to get people talking with their own key points for viable solutions.