The all volunteer American armed forces is also the more than fifty percent married military. This is creating unique problems, and some unusual, and sometimes illegal, solutions. Take the issue of officers marrying spouses who are enlisted. This is frowned upon, and often forbidden, but it happens. After all, some 75 percent of people meet their spouses at work. The military couple keeps it quiet, and everyone usually plays along as long as there are no problems. This often extends to efforts (by military personnel officers) to see that the couple are kept together when one is transferred. If the marriage becomes an issue, the enlisted spouse (usually, but not always, a woman) will leave the service and life will go on. The all volunteer military invests lots of money in training career troops (those staying in for more than six years), and does not want to lose that investment of time, money (sometimes several million dollars) and effort. So personnel officers tend to be flexible.
