According to the Centers for Disease Control, 48 percent of couples who marry before 18 are likely to divorce within 10 years. Only 24 percent of those who marry after age 25 will divorce within 10 years. These statistics refer to relationships where neither spouse is in the military.

So it is not surprising that there is predicted to be a higher rate of divorce in the military population, especially among young couples where one, or both are enlisted in a branch of the military.

WAIT, this prediction is false.

Military men and women are more likely to get married, and military men are less likely to get divorced while serving in the military.

This is likely due to the fact that the military provides incentives to marry (for men and women) and remain married (for men). Incentives being health insurance, life insurance, dental coverage, little to no rent payments and lower food prices as well as retirement plans after 20+ years of service. However, once the service members return to civilian life and these incentives are absent, they suffer higher rates of divorce compared to regular civilians.

I’m spitting out all of these facts because I have the potential to become apart of this statistic. I do however find a misconception to these facts.

If one decides to marry a service member due to the incentives, what are they really marrying for?

I have a hard time believing these statistics and asserting them to myself if the majority of military relationships are courted simply for the incentives that it would offer. I want to know if this is what my life is going to be like. Fellow military blogger and a military life consultant, Jacey Eckhart studied long-married military couples for her thesis. Her thesis set out to study more than 1,200 active-duty Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard members and their spouses who have been married for more than 15 years and how they were able to maintain their marriages despite hardships commonly faced for military couples.

Her blog, titled: How Long-Married Military Couples Stay Together, discusses situations faced within the military hemisphere that can lead to premature marriages and subsequently divorces.