parental rights as an enlisted Marine

What is the name of your state? FL

Is a Marine enlistee able to provide Med. Insur. for his child if unmarried to the mother? What legal recourse does a Marine enlistee have if the mother denies visitation? What % of enlistee fathers are denied joint custody post term of duty?

The situation is this: My brother is preparing to go into the Marines. The Marine Corps recruiter had the mother of his 18 month old child sign a statement indicating that he was not responsible for the child's well-being etc. Yet, the Marine Corps recruiter also said that he would be able to provide medical insurance for the child--but he is not married to the mother of the child. Also, although currently my brother works at night and takes care of his daughter during the day, he and the child are living with the child's maternal grandmother. Yesterday, the grandmother told my brother that he did not have any parental rights of the child since they are living in her house. Is this true? What does my brother need to do to make sure he is not cheated out of his parental rights?

The recruiter does not make decisions about custody, child support, visitation or parental rights, same for the grandmother, a judge makes those decisions.

If your friend has established paternty, and other legal orders re the child they cannot be changed by the recruiter, now if there are no orders that may be a different story it is not clear what the exact situation is.

Perhaps you can have your friend ask the quesiton so we have the correct informaiton. If a court orders child support and medical coverage it an be taken out of his pay, I believe he will have to pay extra for the medical coverage.

Here is a link to the "New" soldier's and Sailor's act:
It's no longer called the Soldier's and sailor's act, Pursuant to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA, 50 USCA App. § 501 et seq.) (formerly the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act), a default judgment or new judgment cannot be entered against a respondent in active military service unless counsel is appointed to protect his or her interests or respondent waives his or her rights under the Act. [See 50 USCA App. §§ 517, 521] Here are some links to FAQ re SCRA and CSE, deployment etc.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse...4/dcl-04-26.htm http://192.156.19.104/JAL_mess.nsf/...5256e120050f9e4 http://www.abanet.org/family/newsle...04/Apr_SCRA.pdf

This is my brother and no, as far as we know, no papers have been formally filed with the courts establishing custody or visitation with either parent or the grandmother.

mariogirl said:

This is my brother and no, as far as we know, no papers have been formally filed with the courts establishing custody or visitation with either parent or the grandmother.

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He needs to establish paternity formally then with that child, support/custody/visitation to establish his rights, until then he has no rights, only what he is allowed.

Here is a link to Florida Paternity Law Summary http://www.uslegalforms.com/lawdigest/paternity-law-digest.php/FL/FL-598P.htm

Ok...then will he be able to retain custody and/or visitation rights if enlisted in the Marine Corp?

mariogirl said:

Ok...then will he be able to retain custody and/or visitation rights if enlisted in the Marine Corp?

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Once they are established, that doesn't mean that he will get frequent visitation unless they live in the same area, so if he goes to Okinawa he will be responsible for traveling to the child or if he get stationed somewhere in another state he is responsible for travel costs.

So he will want to get that proces started now and someone authorized if he is unavailable.

AND will the Marine Corp really make him give up custody? How can he be able to provide medical insur if he doesn't have custody and isn't married to the mother?

rmet4nzkx said:

Once they are established, that doesn't mean that he will get frequent visitation unless they live in the same area, so if he goes to Okinawa he will be responsible for traveling to the child or if he get stationed somewhere in another state he is responsible for travel costs.

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So then, in that situation he can not have joint custody. What would happen when he gets out of the service and wants to establish joint custody? Are the courts normally in favor of enlisted men who want to re-establish their custodial rights?

mariogirl said:

So then, in that situation he can not have joint custody. What would happen when he gets out of the service and wants to establish joint custody? Are the courts normally in favor of enlisted men who want to re-establish their custodial rights?

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There are different kinds of custody, visitation is different. the can have joint custody where she has the child more than 50% of the time and he gets visitation, but they still make joint decisions about the child. I don't think the USMC can make him sign away his rights, perhaps he is joing with no dependents but they can be added later, it will tale a while to establish paternity and custody.

rmet4nzkx said:

There are different kinds of custody, visitation is different. the can have joint custody where she has the child more than 50% of the time and he gets visitation, but they still make joint decisions about the child. I don't think the USMC can make him sign away his rights, perhaps he is joing with no dependents but they can be added later, it will tale a while to establish paternity and custody.

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Actually, I have heard from many people that you cannot have any kind of custody of a child when you are first joining the military (unless you are married). You can later, once basic training is finished and you are established, but not in the beginning. So that it probably what the recruiter is talking about. Therefore he is probably going to have to wait to establish everything legally.

Its also true that the child can get the same military benefits (without cost) that would be available if they were married. That doesn't just include medical....it also includes PX priveledges and other things of that nature.

When your brother goes to the location where he officially signs over himself/swears into the military he will have to fill out paper work to create his "Page 2" (so its called) which contains all his information (for example parents names/spouse/children) he needs to include his child on that page and it will ask who physically is responsible for the child. He will need a copy of her birth certificate to include the child on this information. He will also have to enroll his child in DEERS that will then enable him to enroll the child in TRICARE (military medical) at no cost to him/United Concordia (dental insurance for military dependents) this will cost about $25.00 a month. He can also set up an allotment to the child's mother's account which will come out of his paycheck every month and cover his ass since there are no official orders.

I do not know much about the legal issues but I do know from personal experience how to do all of this. My husband has a child from a previous relationship which we had a hell of a time getting all this stuff sorted out for. Also, he can have a military ID issued for his child which would give the mother permission to bring her on base to use the Exchange/Commissary but if he does this he is responsible for her actions when she is on any military installation. We didn't do this because my husband's ex is not that trustworthy and is out to get him where she can. So, he should think twice about it.

I also have heard things over the years about single parents in the military having to sign over guardianship of the children to someone so that the military can ensure the children are completely taken care of and the parent can perform their duty without having to return for their children. I have only heard of this when the parent would be on deployment, not just in the military. Sorry this is long winded but if your brother doesn't take care of this stuff right away before basic training then he will probably have to wait until he reaches his first duty station. This happened to us with the medical coverage. Hope this will help with one area of it anyway.

Thank you so much for the info...it makes much more sense now!

I was married to a marine, but we were unmarried when he joined and we had already had two kids. First off, recruiters are full of **** about everything so don't worry about anything good or bad that they say. Second, the kid can get all the benefits, and there is a legal office on every base that gives members of the military free advice and they will help him out.....By the way, if the mother is willing to give him custody or at least partial custody, he will get BAH( basic allowance for housing)...it is a huge amount of money for all marines with wives and other dependents, but he has to have some type of custody. It was $740 a month in VA when he joined, now in CA it's $1420 a month so it's worth looking into, he can ask the legal people on base. I signed that bull**** form and that peice of paper didn't mean ****, so don't worry about it.

This post is from October of last year. The original poster likely isn't even around.