Post by Lisa Steptoe on Jun 4, 2007 7:57:03 GMT -5
Derek E. Enslow
2111 E. State Hwy AA
Springfield, Missouri 65803-9206
derek.enslow@us.army.mil
(417) 773-5221
Dear Concerned Citizen,
I have been successfully drawing attention to a situation that is NOT "Fair and Balanced," and was hoping that you would be willing to help be in my endeavors. Your support would greatly contribute to the growing concerns of military families. Below is a copy of the letter and two news articles that I have been sending to different government officials both locally and federally to protect our troops when they come home. I urge you to contact your government representative and ask him or her to do the same. If you truly support the troops, let’s start protecting their military freedoms while they continue to risk their lives to protect ours. If you have any questions or would like to support legislation please contact at your leisure. Thank you!
My name is Captain Derek E. Enslow, a 2003 graduate of West Point Military Academy from Springfield, Missouri, and I am writing in hopes that both a local and potentially a national policy, under the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act and/or Senator McCaskill’s Military Bill of Rights, will be implemented immediately to prevent soldiers from surviving the war only to return home to become a casualty of life. This legislation, which I propose be called the “Dear John” bill, must take precedence as we continually have soldiers who face the issues outlined below when they return home from Iraq and/or Afghanistan in addition to any other conflict we will be engaged in. As deployments have now increased from twelve to fifteen months, I urge you to pass legislation immediately without hesitation or waiting until next year as this is of the utmost importance for the future of our soldiers and requires your immediate attention.
According to the Army News Service in an article entitled “Army programs combat rising divorce rate,” by Monica Barrera, “Divorces among officers tripled from fiscal year 2002 to 2004, according to statistics compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center. After Operation Iraqi Freedom began, there was an increase of 3,024 divorces Army-wide”. The article goes on to say that, “There has been a doubling of total Army divorces from the 2000 fiscal year to 2004 fiscal year – an increase of nearly 5,000 divorces over this period. A year before September 11, total active-duty Army divorces were at 5,658 among 255,353 marriages. Divorce rose a year later to 7,049 from 248,180 marriages”. In a January 29, 2007 article “Army Programs Help Keep Military Marriages Strong,” the Army chief of chaplains statistics indicated that, “8,367 Army couples divorced in 2005, making the Army’s divorce rate higher that that of any other military service”. The statistics will also show that the trend is starting to taper off it will only rise again with our next conflict as a new generation of soldiers enter the service. We can sit ideally by and lie to ourselves with reassuring statistics that the worst is over and this may be so for this war, but let us not fail future generations and their hopes at the American dream and a successful marriage when they return from war. Instead allow us to take a proactive stance and implement policy now to ensure their success without delay.
During my second deployment, in support of Operation Iraq Freedom 05-07, many of my soldiers and I were served with divorce papers either during or upon our return from serving our nation. Instead of a welcome home embrace, one of my soldiers was served his papers in the auditorium where our welcome home celebration was being held. As the research shows the longer this war continues the more divorces, especially for us soldiers with multiple deployments, will increase. This is only more aggravating when the majority of the states abide by the “No Fault Law” and the spouse, most often the wife, has found love in the arms of “Jody” (an Army term for the person who steals girlfriends/wives) while the soldier is deployed and no longer wants to be married to the service member. To compound that, while a judge can mandate mediation there currently is no such law to mandate marriage counseling in the state of Missouri, which needs to be implemented especially when there is a child involved. This would prevent the spouse, most often the mother, from taking the children without trying to resolve issues that the soldier could not physically attend to because of his/her honorable service to the nation. Furthermore, the Military One Source provides funding for six sessions of counseling of all sorts, but will not provide the soldier with means to seek mediation which only emphasizes why marriage counseling should be mandatory. We need to protect our soldiers’ constitutional freedoms and right to pursue happiness, and resolve their marital issues, as they continue to protect our liberties and freedoms. Therefore, if one of the individuals either the soldier who was deployed for fifteen months or the spouse that supported that individual from home wanted to salvage the marriage this would at least provide them the means and opportunity to do so. It is more beneficial and cost effective to resolve a marriage than it is to dissolve one especially when there are children involved.
We soldiers will continue to fight and die for our country as long as our country is willing to do the same for us here at home. If under Senator McCaskill's Military Bill of Rights you want to: Section 1: Provide adequate troop levels to meet our military obligations and achieve our objectives by increasing support for recruiting and retention, start by supporting us in this fight against divorce. Currently I am being advised by my lawyer to get out of the military if I want to pursue custody of my 2 ½ year old son. The American people have invested millions of dollars into my West Point education, military schooling, and two deployments. I, as a two time combat veteran that still wants to make the military a career, am now faced with tendering my resignation in order to attempt to get custody of my son whom I would have been home for to attend to these family matters had it not been for being deployed. Should I decide to stay in this potentially hazardous profession I face losing custody of my 2 ½ year old son in order to lead the sons and daughters of America back into battle. If I should die in battle, having custody of my son would provide me more time to establish a relationship with him before I deployed, otherwise with me being stationed away from him I would not even get to see him on weekends and only about six weeks during the summer when I was not deployed. If the “No Fault Law” was amended nation wide to protect us, soldiers retention would increase as more of us would continue to serve.
Under Article II: Protecting Military Families Senator McCaskill's Military Bill of Rights states that, “No military family should ever have to worry that service to their country could adversely impact their pay, their homes, their health care, or their future”. In my case my honorable military status is being used against me in the dissolution of my marriage and custody of my son. Furthermore, should I lose custody of my son, especially due to my military service and to a divorce that I DO NOT want, I will begin having to pay child support for my son whom I would rarely see based on a fixed percentage rate that is determined in Jefferson City, in addition to bills that my wife and I established while married as well as those credit cards she ran up while I was deployed. Currently child support does not take into account marital debt, especially those that were accrued during the soldier’s deployment that the spouse ran up and who now wants a divorce. This potentially would force the soldier to file for bankruptcy because (s)he cannot pay off these bills in addition to paying for child support. For example, my wife and I bought a house in Monett, Missouri so she could be closer to family prior to my year long deployment from Fort Hood, Texas. She has since vacated all of our belongings prior to me coming home and moved into an apartment with our son. I am now stationed at Fort Leonard Wood and our home, which the court has not intervened to make her assist me in the house payments, is sitting vacant while I do not have the additional income to provide an additional residence for myself. I am again sacrificing my happiness to provide for my family and protecting our financial investment. At this point I would not be able to pay the child support in addition to these financial marital debts, which is why I propose that the child support law be amended to reflect these changes, which otherwise would not have been an issue in addition that the divorce not be final until all marital debt is dissolved, which would prevent outrageous spending while the soldier is deployed and encourage the spouse that wanted the divorce to begin paying off the debt as to not burden either party.
I am coming to you, my representatives, asking that you please fight for our rights on the issue of establishing marital counseling, should a spouse file for divorce and especially when there are children involved. Help us change the laws making it easier for military service members to gain custody, thus allowing us to spend more time with our children who we may never see again because of our profession and increase soldier retention. Finally, revamp how child support is established until all of the material debt is paid in full because the child had an established quality of life that is now being forced to change and essentially decrease because of the “No Fault Law”. All too often we soldiers are willing to pay the ultimate price and make the ultimate sacrifice when we are called upon, allow us to make it through the war and NOT be a casualty of life when we return.
DEREK E. ENSLOW
CPT, EN
United States Army
2111 E. State Hwy AA
Springfield, Missouri 65803-9206
derek.enslow@us.army.mil
(417) 773-5221
Dear Concerned Citizen,
I have been successfully drawing attention to a situation that is NOT "Fair and Balanced," and was hoping that you would be willing to help be in my endeavors. Your support would greatly contribute to the growing concerns of military families. Below is a copy of the letter and two news articles that I have been sending to different government officials both locally and federally to protect our troops when they come home. I urge you to contact your government representative and ask him or her to do the same. If you truly support the troops, let’s start protecting their military freedoms while they continue to risk their lives to protect ours. If you have any questions or would like to support legislation please contact at your leisure. Thank you!
My name is Captain Derek E. Enslow, a 2003 graduate of West Point Military Academy from Springfield, Missouri, and I am writing in hopes that both a local and potentially a national policy, under the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act and/or Senator McCaskill’s Military Bill of Rights, will be implemented immediately to prevent soldiers from surviving the war only to return home to become a casualty of life. This legislation, which I propose be called the “Dear John” bill, must take precedence as we continually have soldiers who face the issues outlined below when they return home from Iraq and/or Afghanistan in addition to any other conflict we will be engaged in. As deployments have now increased from twelve to fifteen months, I urge you to pass legislation immediately without hesitation or waiting until next year as this is of the utmost importance for the future of our soldiers and requires your immediate attention.
According to the Army News Service in an article entitled “Army programs combat rising divorce rate,” by Monica Barrera, “Divorces among officers tripled from fiscal year 2002 to 2004, according to statistics compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center. After Operation Iraqi Freedom began, there was an increase of 3,024 divorces Army-wide”. The article goes on to say that, “There has been a doubling of total Army divorces from the 2000 fiscal year to 2004 fiscal year – an increase of nearly 5,000 divorces over this period. A year before September 11, total active-duty Army divorces were at 5,658 among 255,353 marriages. Divorce rose a year later to 7,049 from 248,180 marriages”. In a January 29, 2007 article “Army Programs Help Keep Military Marriages Strong,” the Army chief of chaplains statistics indicated that, “8,367 Army couples divorced in 2005, making the Army’s divorce rate higher that that of any other military service”. The statistics will also show that the trend is starting to taper off it will only rise again with our next conflict as a new generation of soldiers enter the service. We can sit ideally by and lie to ourselves with reassuring statistics that the worst is over and this may be so for this war, but let us not fail future generations and their hopes at the American dream and a successful marriage when they return from war. Instead allow us to take a proactive stance and implement policy now to ensure their success without delay.
During my second deployment, in support of Operation Iraq Freedom 05-07, many of my soldiers and I were served with divorce papers either during or upon our return from serving our nation. Instead of a welcome home embrace, one of my soldiers was served his papers in the auditorium where our welcome home celebration was being held. As the research shows the longer this war continues the more divorces, especially for us soldiers with multiple deployments, will increase. This is only more aggravating when the majority of the states abide by the “No Fault Law” and the spouse, most often the wife, has found love in the arms of “Jody” (an Army term for the person who steals girlfriends/wives) while the soldier is deployed and no longer wants to be married to the service member. To compound that, while a judge can mandate mediation there currently is no such law to mandate marriage counseling in the state of Missouri, which needs to be implemented especially when there is a child involved. This would prevent the spouse, most often the mother, from taking the children without trying to resolve issues that the soldier could not physically attend to because of his/her honorable service to the nation. Furthermore, the Military One Source provides funding for six sessions of counseling of all sorts, but will not provide the soldier with means to seek mediation which only emphasizes why marriage counseling should be mandatory. We need to protect our soldiers’ constitutional freedoms and right to pursue happiness, and resolve their marital issues, as they continue to protect our liberties and freedoms. Therefore, if one of the individuals either the soldier who was deployed for fifteen months or the spouse that supported that individual from home wanted to salvage the marriage this would at least provide them the means and opportunity to do so. It is more beneficial and cost effective to resolve a marriage than it is to dissolve one especially when there are children involved.
We soldiers will continue to fight and die for our country as long as our country is willing to do the same for us here at home. If under Senator McCaskill's Military Bill of Rights you want to: Section 1: Provide adequate troop levels to meet our military obligations and achieve our objectives by increasing support for recruiting and retention, start by supporting us in this fight against divorce. Currently I am being advised by my lawyer to get out of the military if I want to pursue custody of my 2 ½ year old son. The American people have invested millions of dollars into my West Point education, military schooling, and two deployments. I, as a two time combat veteran that still wants to make the military a career, am now faced with tendering my resignation in order to attempt to get custody of my son whom I would have been home for to attend to these family matters had it not been for being deployed. Should I decide to stay in this potentially hazardous profession I face losing custody of my 2 ½ year old son in order to lead the sons and daughters of America back into battle. If I should die in battle, having custody of my son would provide me more time to establish a relationship with him before I deployed, otherwise with me being stationed away from him I would not even get to see him on weekends and only about six weeks during the summer when I was not deployed. If the “No Fault Law” was amended nation wide to protect us, soldiers retention would increase as more of us would continue to serve.
Under Article II: Protecting Military Families Senator McCaskill's Military Bill of Rights states that, “No military family should ever have to worry that service to their country could adversely impact their pay, their homes, their health care, or their future”. In my case my honorable military status is being used against me in the dissolution of my marriage and custody of my son. Furthermore, should I lose custody of my son, especially due to my military service and to a divorce that I DO NOT want, I will begin having to pay child support for my son whom I would rarely see based on a fixed percentage rate that is determined in Jefferson City, in addition to bills that my wife and I established while married as well as those credit cards she ran up while I was deployed. Currently child support does not take into account marital debt, especially those that were accrued during the soldier’s deployment that the spouse ran up and who now wants a divorce. This potentially would force the soldier to file for bankruptcy because (s)he cannot pay off these bills in addition to paying for child support. For example, my wife and I bought a house in Monett, Missouri so she could be closer to family prior to my year long deployment from Fort Hood, Texas. She has since vacated all of our belongings prior to me coming home and moved into an apartment with our son. I am now stationed at Fort Leonard Wood and our home, which the court has not intervened to make her assist me in the house payments, is sitting vacant while I do not have the additional income to provide an additional residence for myself. I am again sacrificing my happiness to provide for my family and protecting our financial investment. At this point I would not be able to pay the child support in addition to these financial marital debts, which is why I propose that the child support law be amended to reflect these changes, which otherwise would not have been an issue in addition that the divorce not be final until all marital debt is dissolved, which would prevent outrageous spending while the soldier is deployed and encourage the spouse that wanted the divorce to begin paying off the debt as to not burden either party.
I am coming to you, my representatives, asking that you please fight for our rights on the issue of establishing marital counseling, should a spouse file for divorce and especially when there are children involved. Help us change the laws making it easier for military service members to gain custody, thus allowing us to spend more time with our children who we may never see again because of our profession and increase soldier retention. Finally, revamp how child support is established until all of the material debt is paid in full because the child had an established quality of life that is now being forced to change and essentially decrease because of the “No Fault Law”. All too often we soldiers are willing to pay the ultimate price and make the ultimate sacrifice when we are called upon, allow us to make it through the war and NOT be a casualty of life when we return.
DEREK E. ENSLOW
CPT, EN
United States Army
Who in the hell do you think you are? Just because your a CAPTAIN in the military doesn't mean your someone special. Your not the only one that has been through a divorce. They happen everyday with children. Your a CAPTAIN in the military serving for our freedom, but yet your tryin to pass a bill to take away the freedom of choice beacuse you want to force someone to go to marriage counceling. Sounds kind of contradicting if you ask me. You might want to think that trough a little bit more.