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SSG Bethany Viglietta
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My husband's greatest fear when we were making the decision of whether or not I would continue serving in the Active Duty Army was that he would not be able to find work where ever we ended up next. He feared that he would not have a career/retirement/seniority at some point. It's not like he is unskilled or uneducated even, he currently serves as a Sheriff Deputy and is on the SWAT team, but without some sort of stability he would become a "suitcase cop" and continue to be low man with agencies that do not have lateral transfers.
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SGT Infantryman (Airborne)
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8 y
SSG Bethany Viglietta, Just goes to show its not always the female spouse. Glad to hear he landed a decent job, and y'all are doing better.
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SSG Bethany Viglietta
SSG Bethany Viglietta
8 y
SGT (Join to see) - It's definitely males and females. Most news articles or statistics tend to focus on female spouses over male spouses, but each end up being under employed because they have the experience and knowledge and still end up in entry level positions. By the time they move up, it's time to move again.
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SGT Infantryman (Airborne)
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8 y
It's got to be tough SSG Bethany Viglietta, but the job market is still stretched thin right now. Also, both spouses, like you and your husband, have to decide what is more important. Is your military career more important than your finances or your husband having a job up to his standards, or is your husband finding a good permanent job more important than what you want. Sounds like you both worked it out before you continued your service in the military. I suspect that's a lot of the reasons for a divorce in the military. It's a very important call that both spouses have to talk about what they really expect out of each other. I'm all out of thumbs but I'll catch up tomorrow.
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MSG Pat Colby
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My Wife had a helluva time finding and maintaining work in her desired field (Vet Tech). She finally gave up. My constant TDY made her working a job almost impossible. (3 Kids to herd around while I was gone)
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SFC Andrew Miller
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Why I totally agree that it is a problem and I don't have some cure-all fix for it, this is not something new. I'm not saying that there isn't a negative impact, but it has been an impact for as long as there have been military spouses. Through MyCAA and other programs, DOD has been trying to improve things for spouses careers, but it doesn't help with a transfer to a new location every few years. Unfortunately, it will probably never close that gap.

As for the "could have a negative impact of up to a billion dollars each year."...it DOES have a negative economic impact each year and has been.
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SGT Infantryman (Airborne)
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8 y
SFC Andrew Miller, Even if it's old news to you, it's a serious problem for the new spouses who aren't used to the military. Seems like something from the DOD could have done better at by now, if they even care.
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