I remember when my sub was on a six-month deployment. The rule was, when you're talking to family and friends back home, you don't talk about other sailors, period. We had a guy who got kidney stones. His wife heard a rumor that he had some type of STD. She got mad and went and slept with some rando guy, ended up getting some actual STDs herself, and there were divorce papers waiting for him when the ship returned home.
But the military runs on rumors. They're the only source of entertainment soldiers and sailors have most of the time. And in the weird mental stimulation vacuum that is life at sea, people will literally start swinging at you if you question their preferred rumors. Antisemitic, racist, classist, secret society crap ... they love it.
It sounds like that marriage was on the edge and bound to break up sooner rather than later, if all it took was a rumour for one party to run off and hook up with a random, get STDs (plural!) then file for divorse. To be honest this sounds a little bit like everyone who told it heard from a friend-of-a-friend...
The story is common enough in many similar ways to things I know have happened that I'll believe it. The details may change, but lots of people cheat on their spouse, suspicions make them more likely to do that, and STDs are common enough to not be surprised if someone gets them (though multiple STDs is a little less common)
I don't know if the given story is true - it also is a urban legend feel. However it is true for a number of other people in similar situations.
Being away for long periods of time is bad for most relationships. I remember very high divorce rates for some career fields and a lot of cheating going when deployed.
SECOND TROOPER: Yeah, some of the other guys were telling me about it. They say it's, it's quite a thing to ... What was that?
"
""The T-17s, as far as I can tell... are a great improvement," one trooper said. "Yeah, that's what they tell you. But believe me, they don't hold up,""
I remember when my sub was on a six-month deployment. The rule was, when you're talking to family and friends back home, you don't talk about other sailors, period. We had a guy who got kidney stones. His wife heard a rumor that he had some type of STD. She got mad and went and slept with some rando guy, ended up getting some actual STDs herself, and there were divorce papers waiting for him when the ship returned home.
But the military runs on rumors. They're the only source of entertainment soldiers and sailors have most of the time. And in the weird mental stimulation vacuum that is life at sea, people will literally start swinging at you if you question their preferred rumors. Antisemitic, racist, classist, secret society crap ... they love it.