Was on active duty for 12 years and in the reserves, called up periodically to Iraq and Afghanistan for another 16 (just retired this year).
Women are initially attracted to men in uniform, I don't know why but it's a fact. There is initial attraction, but you typically can not keep it... It's almost like she sees you are some sort of military clone, very replaceable with another military guy. Yes there are exceptions and I can tell you with absolute truth that some military wives and girlfriend are among the most loyal women I have ever in my life met. But that fact is they are a minority... MOST military spouses cheat on their husband when they are deployed at a rate too high to imagine. The divorce rate is unbelievably high, and ironically the divorce rate spikes right at the 10 year mark... which coincidentally is the point where a spouse gets half your retirement pay by law. She could be the ***** of Babylon, with none of your children actually yours, and she would get half your retirement. There are women who use military guys... it happens.
When I was deployed for the First Gulf War I learned the 'Dear John' letter was not a phenomena that only Americans endured. I was attached as a liaison to the French and the frequency at which these break up letters came to soldiers in that unit was such a problem over the months we were deployed that it became a real morale problem (the French had not had troops deployed for any length of time since the Vietnam in the mid 50s) they had not direct experience with this. Later I was assigned to a Royal Marine Unit in Northern Iraq... again the same thing, only the RMs had a interesting way of dealing with this problem. The Marine that was jumped would tape the picture of his former girl in the field privy and we would all p!ss on her.... I didn't notice any morale problems.
But hey... this is how women are, you really can't get mad at them any more than you can get mad at a thunderstorm, you have the take the good days with the bad and just understand that women are like weather. This is why I will ALWAYS say, LDRs never work.... period. Women just can not do this, while there are exceptions, women by and large MUST have physical contact with the man of their interest otherwise she starts to lose attraction. When solders deploy many women will start to wander... again they just can not help it any more than men can help the fact that we are always looking at women... Men, by our nature are always looking to have sex with a variety of women... women are always looking for their next best option. This is part of our nature, and yes we can overcome our base instincts, but never forget that it doesn't take much for us to revert to our nature.
