Divorced parents in Texas who are in the Air Force may have an easier time seeing their children now that the Air Force has begun making an effort to ensure that parents will be stationed near their children if there is a court-ordered child custody agreement in place. Since Aug. 17, 2020, parents can ask to be stationed near their children or can have an assignment that will take them far from their children deferred.
New policy
It had not been standard in the past to take child custody arrangements into consideration when deciding where an Air Force service member will be placed next. The first parent to benefit from the new policy will be stationed near his ex-wife and child in Florida. He received the news less than a day after putting the request in. Originally, his assignment had been overseas. His former spouse had moved to Florida based on that information because there was more support for her there. When his assignment was canceled, it briefly looked as though the situation might be complicated, but it was quickly resolved.
Keeping parents with children
The Air Force says that it will make the assignments when it is possible but that this may not always be the case. However, the organization plans to do its best to accommodate the needs and requests of divorced parents. In the case of the man going to Florida, an official says it was easy to process his request quickly because he had the right paperwork. Officials had also been trained to work through requests quickly when applications opened.
Divorce brings with it a number of challenges. Those challenges can multiply when there are children and may become even more complicated in the case of a military divorce when there are a number of different issues that must be accounted for, ranging from the likelihood of one parent’s deployment to pension plans and more. An attorney with a background in military divorce may be able to help with these complexities.
