NATIONAL GUARD Divorced and deployed: the complications

One concern is getting child support reduced because of lower military pay.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Although the aftermath of divorce can be difficult for any parent, those called up from civilian life for military duty in Iraq or elsewhere often face extra headaches ranging from long-distance custody disputes to more onerous child-support burdens.
Those concerns don't always rank among the priorities in the military's many family-support programs, but federal and state officials are trying to help. Specifically, some states are streamlining the process though which activated military personnel -- facing a cut in pay compared to civilian wages -- can request a temporary reduction in child-support payments.
"We're not going to send a soldier into harm's way with this nagging, pesky problem hanging over him," said Nick Young, a former Army colonel who heads Virginia's child-support enforcement division. "We're going to send him with the knowledge that the right things are happening back home."
Scope of problem
Roughly 175,000 National Guard and reserve personnel are now on active duty, part of the biggest overall civilian call-up since World War II. No official figures show how many are divorced parents, but almost certainly, there are thousands.
Shirley Calhoun of the National Military Families Association said the military is confronting an increasing array of divorce-related problems because of its extensive use of citizen soldiers in their 30s and 40s.
"The last time we had such big call-ups, you didn't have as many divorces," she said.
Calhoun said she knew of situations in which an ex-spouse had sued to gain custody of children that an activated parent was forced to leave behind.
And custody disputes figured in two notable cases last year:
USpc. Simone Holcomb was released from active Army duty after she refused to return to Iraq so she could care for her children in Colorado. She and her husband had both been deployed in Iraq but returned home to settle a custody dispute involving the husband's ex-wife.
UIn Nevada, James Denson II temporarily lost custody of his child when he missed a court hearing after being called up for Navy duty in Kuwait.
"Divorced men have their challenges anyway. You add being on active duty, and you're doubling those problems," said Dianna Thompson of the National Family Justice Association, which advocates on behalf of noncustodial parents.
Child support
Advocates say a widespread problem involves child-support payments owed by activated personnel whose military pay is less than their civilian pay.
"Once a soldier or airman gets deployed, trying to get the child-support order changed is not easy," said Michael Cline, executive director of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States. "You can't be there to run down to the court."
There are no mechanisms for automatically reducing court-ordered support payments in such cases; activated troops must request temporary reductions and file paperwork to support their claims.
Virginia's Nick Young said he and his counterparts in other states are committed to speeding the process so support payments can be modified before troops are deployed.
However, James Hagler, a Chicago lawyer who serves in the Illinois Army National Guard, said some called-up soldiers lack the time or the savvy to complete the process before deployment.
"You often need an attorney, and not all of them have the financial resources for that," he said.
Hagler and his law partner, Jeffrey Leving, helped draft a bill now pending in the Illinois Legislature that would require courts to modify child-support obligations in proportion to any pay cut caused by activation. The reduction would be retroactive to the call-up date, and military personnel could wait until after discharge from active duty to request it.
"It's unfair to servicemen to come back and worry about arrearages they can't possibly pay," Leving said. "I guarantee there will be soldiers going to jail because of this."
Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and his staff, who have initiated several programs to support citizen soldiers, are interested in the legislation but say federal law prohibits retroactive reductions in child-support payments.
Illinois already implemented a program in January that expedites the procedure for reducing support payments.