New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/16/2011 -- Military service is always tough in terms of soldiers marriages and relationships. Separation over the seas and oceans and stress of fight do nothing to strengthen family ties or prevent brake up letters. Despite some programs inside the United States armed forces to help those enrolled to save marriages, divorce rate in the army continued to grow last year.

A new report which the Pentagon released show that the divorce rate in the U.S. Army grew from 3.4% to 3.6% in the period September 2010-September 2011. In this period there were 27,312 divorces of about 765,000 married members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The study also shows that the rate of failure in marriage among reservists has risen from 2.7% to 2.8% in 2011 and the divorce rate for women enrolled was 7.7% compared with that of men enrolled by 3%.

Recent research of the Pentagon are not the only source of information concern for military marriages. Approximately 22% of soldiers in Iraq said in a survey that took place last spring on the battlefield that they are thinking to separate or to divorce their wives. The same parameter was only 12.4% in 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

The figures have increased steadily over the past eight years due to the fact that the U.S. has fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army divorce rate in the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 - which led to war - was only 2.6%.

"Every marriage has factors that can be controlled and uncontrollable factors," said Joe Davis, a representative of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Associated Press when asked to report. "But when eight years of war are intervening, the preparation for war, being actually at war, coming home and having to think that you will return to war again - and when you have children - it has a huge impact on the family unit."

However, the military has made some efforts to tackle this divorce epidemic. There were many periods of rest, workshops, marriage counseling sessions and other programs run by priests and family services to help soldiers to save their relationships and families and to ease the tension of a divorce.

"We believe these programs are instrumental in mitigating the stress caused by ongoing military operations places on marriages," said April Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense. Major Cunningham believes that initiatives have contributed to a lower divorce rate although there is still an increase of it. It is hard to maintain any relationship for military men and women but it can be done with the right guidance.

How to save a relationship from falling apart can be very difficult but with the right help anything is possible and can be achieved.