It's not enough to risk your life..

...you have to risk losing custody of your children, too.

There is an alarming trend nationwide that's seeing military deployment used as an argument to declare a parent unfit.  It's crazy that lawyers are actually using this as a tactic to help clients snatch their children from the custodial parent simply because they're on active duty in the military.

As military divorce rates rise, more parents are facing custody battles.  They're receiving little help from the military and are forced to fight a custody battle from a war zone.  How insane is this?  The military requires parents to write a dependent care plan before they deploy, but these plans have no legal weight and are often ignored.To wit, one Spec. Jonathan W. Maldonado discovered this the hard way.  He had given his mother guardianship and power of attorney over his children when he deployed.  The courts did not recognize the military power of attorney and placed his children in foster care. I don't know the full details of this case, but this seems simply insane to me.  He can't contact his children and will have to fill to regain custody when he returns to the US in January.

I find the entire idea of using military deployments as an excuse to change custody agreements fairly horrific. The lawyers say they're not attacking the soldiers for doing their duty but it sure as hell looks like it. Add to that the fact that they're half a world away and not able to easily contact lawyers and make hearings and it's just too much.  These parents are already facing one of the toughest parts of being at war- being separated from their children- now these scumbag lawyers and exes are using the very fact that they're risking their lives as leverage to gain custody.

It's wrong.

I know it.  You now it.  And those ass hat lawyers know it, too.