Army Teaches Troops To Avoid 'Marrying A Jerk'

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has some new "rules of engagement" for people who want to get engaged.
U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called "How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk."
The matchmaking advice comes as military family life is being stressed by two tough wars. Defense Department records show more than 56,000 personnel in the Army -- active, National Guard and Reserve -- have divorced since the campaign in Afghanistan started in 2001.
Officials partly blame long and repeated deployments, which started after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and stretched the service thin.

Troops also are coming home embittered or with life-altering injuries. Either way, officials said, military personnel are very changed from who they were when they married their spouses.