News & Reporting (MFJP)
The Orders That Can’t Follow You Home
Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao responded to a viral plea from Marine spouse Jamie Lenio, who feared being trapped overseas during her divorce. While Cao’s order facilitated her family’s return, it did not address the underlying legal issue of habitual residence, which determines jurisdiction over custody disputes. This situation highlights significant gaps in…
PTSD Is Not a Parenting Defect: Family Courts Must Stop Treating Veterans’ Disabilities as Risk Without Individualized ADA Assessments
June is PTSD Awareness Month, highlighting the need for family courts to stop using PTSD and military service as stereotypes that unjustly restrict parental rights. Courts must ensure individualized assessments to distinguish real risks from harmful assumptions, adhering to federal disability laws to prevent discrimination against veterans in custody cases.
The Loophole
Congress established a high-deployment allowance for servicemembers exceeding deployment thresholds. However, the Navy’s implementation limits eligibility due to a regulation that focuses on consecutive deployment days, ignoring total aggregate time. As a result, sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, despite extended service, receive no additional pay, highlighting systemic flaws in compensation structure.
The Government Has Been Counting the Wrong Days
Captain Mehdi Akacem, a Navy officer with 27 years of service, audited his PERSTEMPO record, revealing systemic flaws in how the military tracks service members’ time away from home. Despite legal requirements for documentation, significant periods of training, transitions, and parent-child separations remain unaccounted for, undermining compensation and support for military families.
When Promises Meet Principles: The IVF Fight Exposing a Fault Line for Military Families
The removal of fertility treatment coverage for military families from the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act has sparked significant debate. This change affects service members relying on TRICARE for infertility treatments, as objections center on ethical concerns about embryo management and budget constraints. The discourse emphasizes the need for respectful, transparent solutions.
When the Pilot Is a Parent: The Mental Health Crisis No Family Sees Coming
This article highlights the hidden mental health struggles pilots face, often stemming from fears of career repercussions if they seek help. Many pilots, while appearing stable, endure depression and anxiety, impacting their families who remain unaware of their pain. The piece advocates for systemic changes to support pilots’ mental health without jeopardizing their careers.
Broken Promises — After the Uniform, After the Family
The post reveals the systemic failures in tracking and supporting military parents post-service, particularly those affected by the Family Advocacy Program. Thousands navigate bureaucratic voids after separation, with lacking accountability and data integration between the DoD and VA. This neglect contributes to rising suicide rates linked to family stressors.
Collateral Damage — Suicide, Stigma, and the Military Parent Crisis
The article discusses the alarming rate of suicides among U.S. service members and veterans, emphasizing the impact of family separation and administrative issues as significant contributors. It reveals systemic failures, including lack of data integration between suicide prevention and family advocacy programs, leading to invisible stressors on military parents, ultimately resulting in tragic outcomes.
Weaponized FAP: How DoD’s Family Court Ends Careers and Families — Without a Trial
The Family Advocacy Program (FAP) within the military often labels service members as “abusers” without proper due process, leading to career and family destruction. Incidents determined under this system lack judicial oversight, creating a culture of fear and institutional self-protection, which is now calling for vital reforms to ensure fairness and accountability.
Justice in Name Only: Veterans Expose Abuse in Summerville and Dorchester Family Courts
Two South Carolina veterans say they faced not justice, but systematic torture in Summerville and Dorchester family courts. William Sewell and Lee describe the same pattern: crushing fees, intimidation, and jail threats under Judge Mandy Kimmons and attorney Jason Wheeler. What should have been custody hearings became, in their words, an assembly line of punishment…
After the Uniform: It’s Time to Count the Days That Really Matter
The piece emphasizes the unseen grief veteran parents endure due to separation from their children. It criticizes the government’s lack of support for their parental rights and suggests policy changes, including prioritizing parenting time and creating a federal court for military families. It calls for accountability in family court struggles faced by veterans.
The Survivorship Bias of Family Court: What We’re Missing Could Be What Matters Most
The post critiques family court systems by highlighting survivorship bias, illustrating how focus on successful outcomes overlooks those who suffer irreversible damage, such as alienated parents and vulnerable litigants. It urges for accountability and systemic reform, emphasizing the need to learn from cases that fail, rather than celebrating mere survival.
Still No Justice: How the Military’s Family Advocacy Program Becomes a Weapon Against Its Own
The content discusses how the military often punishes servicemembers through unverified allegations, particularly via the Family Advocacy Program, which lacks due process. False accusations can lead to severe personal and professional consequences, disrupting family dynamics and unit readiness. Urgent action and reforms are necessary to uphold justice for those in uniform.
No One Is Safe: How Family Court Punishes Our Heroes
Veterans and first responders face an unfair family court system that undermines their parental rights due to their service commitments. Deployments and occupations are often misconstrued as neglect, damaging their family relationships. The system requires reform to protect these individuals and uphold their roles as caring parents, not liabilities.