Obama politicizes military spouses

[darrels joy]

You're right. "This ain't your daddy's army"

I know many couples where the wife is serving and the husband is not.

"I just wonder if there would be the same hue and cry if there were Blue Stars for McCain?"

"We all know that there should NEVER be “undue command pressure” on behalf of any candidate!

For a campaign to request this is wrong and bad.

Joy"

Since you don't seem to understand the power that senior enlisted and officers spouses wield, you are disconnected from the everyday life of military personnel! A spouse is not the only person on base that can ruin a career.

Joy

[sfc_darrel]

Innuendo is the last desperate attempt by an unknown to advance his party’s cause. Is this an attempt to generate discussion that can be taken out of context?

Darrel

[Advisor]

I didn't see a mention of who the women were who were doing this. Perhaps they are not the spouses of senior officials. But even if they are spouses of senior officials, this still would not be UDI. By definition, it cannot be UDI. It could be defined more properly as societal or peer pressure. Imagine the spouse of your boss asking you to be invovled in her pet charity.

[Advisor]

Originally Posted by sfc_darrel

Innuendo is the last desperate attempt by an unknown to advance his party’s cause. Is this an attempt to generate discussion that can be taken out of context?

Darrel

I would call it sarcasm, not inuendo. Heaven forbid that I'd lower the level of the debates on this forum.

[darrels joy]

Some people just don't pay attention.

Marital Status
As indicated in Table 4.11, officers were more likely to be married than the enlisted personnel they lead. It is interesting to note that for officers as well as enlisted personnel, women on active duty were less likely than men to be married. In fact, while nearly three-quarters of male officers were married, only 51 percent of women officers had a spouse. Furthermore, whereas male officers were approximately as likely as their civilian counterparts (college graduates in the workforce 21 to 49 years of age) to be married, female officers were substantially less likely to be married. This suggests that women in the officer corps are more divergent from their civilian peers regarding family patterns.

Though female officers are less likely to be married than male officers, among those who are married women are considerably more likely to be a partner in a dual-military marriage. As can be seen from Table 4.12, married female officers are nearly 7.5 times more likely than married male officers to have a spouse in uniform. This trend is more than a curiosity, as dual-service marriages pose unique challenges to assignment and deployment, in addition to affecting Servicemembers’ satisfaction with military life.

Table 4.11. FY 2002 Married Active Component Officer Corps and Enlisted Personnel, by Gender
Gender	Officers	Enlisted
Males	71.1	49.7
Females	50.9	41.5
Total	68.0	48.5
Also see Appendix Table B-33 (Marital Status by Service).

Table 4.12. FY 2002 Active Component Officers Who Were Married, and in Dual-Service Marriages, by Gender and Service (Number and Percent)
Gender	End-Strength	Married		Married Who Were In Dual-Service Marriages
		Number	Percent	Number*	Percent
ARMY
Male	55,914	40,601	72.6	2,490	6.1
Female	10,669	5,593	52.4	2,549	45.6
Total	66,583	46,194	69.4	5,039	10.9
NAVY
Male	44,864	29,300	65.3	695	2.4
Female	8,097	3,577	44.2	827	23.1
Total	52,961	32,877	62.1	1,521	4.6
MARINE CORPS
Male	15,515	10,848	69.9	401	3.7
Female	887	363	40.9	247	68.0
Total	16,402	11,211	68.3	648	5.8
AIR FORCE
Male	58,901	43,817	74.4	2,830	6.5
Female	12,786	6,992	54.7	2,839	40.6
Total	71,687	50,809	70.9	5,669	11.2
DoD
Male	175,194	124,566	71.1	6,415	5.1
Female	32,439	16,525	50.9	6,462	39.1
Total	207,633	141,091	68.0	12,877	9.1
* There are some differences between the number of males and females reporting dual-service marriages.

http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2002/chapter4/c4_marital.htm
Marital Status

Although only 9 percent of first-time enlisted recruits are married, a large percentage of enlisted Servicemembers are (49 percent). By the end of the first term of service (typically four years), approximately 42 percent of male enlisted members have become married.[footnote 7] Trends in marital status of active duty members are shown in Figure 3.6. The proportion of married enlisted members declined from FY 1977 (50 percent) to FY 1980 (47 percent). In FY 1981 the proportion began to increase until a peak of 57 percent in FY 1994. Since FY 1994, the proportion of married members has dropped to 49 percent in FY 2002. Marital status varies by Service. Air Force members are most likely to be married (56 percent), while Marines are least likely to be married (41 percent).

The percentages of FY 2002 Active Component enlisted married males and females are shown by Service in Table 3.5 and by age in Appendix Table B-24. Proportionally, more Servicemen were married than Servicewomen (50 and 42 percent, respectively). The only Service where these proportions are not evident is the Marine Corps where only 41 percent of both men and women are married. Similarly, more civilian men were married than civilian women (52 versus 50 percent, respectively). The proportion of married Servicemen was slightly smaller than married 18- to 44-year-old men in the civilian population (50 and 52 percent, respectively). The proportion of married Servicewomen was lower than that of women in the comparable civilian population (42 and 50 percent, respectively).

The percentage of married military women has changed significantly since FY 1973.[footnote 8] Twenty-five years ago women constituted 2 percent of military members. Military women were not expected to be married; retention directives implicitly encouraged separation of married enlisted women. In FY 1973, 18 percent of military women were married, increasing to 36 percent in FY 1978 and to 42 percent in FY 2002.

Figure 3.6. Percentage of Active Component enlisted members who were married, by Service, FYs 1973–2002.

Table 3.5. FY 2002 Active Component Enlisted Members Who Were Married, by Gender and Service, and Civilian Labor Force 18-44 Years Old (Percent)
Gender	Army	Navy	Marine Corps	Air Force	DoD	18- to 44-Year-Old Civilians
Male	50.1	46.9	40.7	58.1	49.7	51.8
Female	42.6	33.1	41.2	47.0	41.5	49.8
Total	48.9	44.9	40.7	55.9	48.5	50.9
Also see Appendix Table B-24 (Age by Marital Status and Gender). Source: Civilian data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, September 2002.

http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2002/chapter3/c3_marital.htm

[Gunner Carvo]

Since my time in bootcamp there have been a couple topics that are rarely discussed at work; religion & politics. They occasionally come up, but that's usually on long underways or when the mid-watch gets boring. We don't discuss either in a manner of influence, merely for educational purposes, ie: "Did you know the Quran says...." Not, "You need to read the Quran because....." I signed away a lot of things when I signed my contract but not everything. I decide who I'm going to vote for with no guidance or influence from my superiors or subordinates unless asked for.

[Stick]

I don't know who said it but it bears repeating; "A vote for BHO is like a chicken voting for Kenny King."