Spouses Serve and Sacrifice, too

A group of military retirees is taking their case to the Supreme Court, attempting to overturn a 25-year-old statute that allows for the former spouses of military retirees to receive half of that retirement benefit when the marriages dissolve. The court has agreed to hear the case. I am watching this one closely, and I feel that it will set the timbre for the Roberts Court as it sits today, with the current cast of characters.

The retirees argue in their petition that their retirement is an exclusive and privileged entitlement, and former spouses are not entitled to a share of the retirement largess.

Bull. The spouses earned their share. It's only right they receive it, and I think I can make you see my point without beating you over the head with a multi-page rant. Military spouses sacrifice and serve along side their spouses. Military spouses keep the family functioning, and usually do it on less money than the family would realize in the civilian sector.

But lets forget the emotional appeals and reduce it to what it's all about...the money.

Military spouses make career sacrifices in support of their spouses and the mission. It is the rare military spouse indeed that gets vested in a retirement plan. While we bring diverse experience, adaptability and flexibility to the table, and generally prove to be ideal employees, advancement is stunted, and we usually have no choice but to accept an initial set-back wage-wise when we relocate to a new billet with our spouses.

The retirees are thinking about their own comfort in their retirement years, but so are the spouses, who as a general rule have little or no retirement funds because we are never in a job long enough to participate in the matching contributions, and sometimes we can't even participate and pay our way. Our 401 K is what we can afford to take out after we buy cars and insurance and school supplies and groceries and mortgages and clothing and school uniforms and tuition to parochial schools and rent and utilities and new tires and tune-ups and all the other things that every other family has to pay for - with one glaring exception. There is never any free childcare because grandma isn't close at hand.

We don't advance at the rate our skills and experience would dictate. I have known military wives who, by the time they graduated from college, had transcripts from 10 or 12 schools.

The sacrifices the spouses make are worth recognition. I hope that point is not merely brought up, but driven home, when the case is argued. Spouses serve and sacrifice too, and they deserve to benefit from the rewards they helped their spouse to reap. With this conservative court, I worry about the outcome.