Unmarried with child and trying to join the military?

Question

We have a child together but we live separately. I live at home with the baby and he lives at home with his parents. He wants to join the Air force or Coast Guard. Is that allowed if we are not married? Right now my parents are supporting both of us (the baby and I) until he enlists and starts making some money! We're both 20 years old. I understand it has something to do with having custody but I don't really understand what that means.

Answer 1

Ok yes he can join the military.  And this is the process for receiving what is called BAH Diff that means he has to prove by birth certifcate and court order that he is paying child support to you for his child.  This is after he enlists.  Once he gets that done he will see it come out on his pay.  But remember he has to have a court order ordering child support that is the only way he will get compensated, otherwise he'll just have to send you money for the child out of his pay without BAH which by the way BAH is for the servicemember's dependents.  Now if you two decide and go ahead and marry, what i wrote above is not for that.  In the case of marriage you and his child will become his dependents and he will get compensated with BAH with dependents. THere are different rates.  The BAH diff as i spoke up earlier is the difference of BAH with dependents to the amount of child support ordered.  Basically for some guy not married but has a kid with someone out side of the miltary the military will give you the difference of BAH w/dependant rate to what his child support is?  I hope I have answered your question.  I am a servicemember with over 18 years in  

Answer 2

It's really unfair to babies that girls who are not old enough to think rationally are still old enough to procreate.

Newsflash, you don't have to be married to join the armed forces.  He will be able to send you money with his new found paycheck, however, you won't be able to cash in on his benefits.  You two really sound like a winning couple...

Answer 3

Yes, he can join the military if you are not married. He will have to let them know that he has a child. Other than him possibly having to pay child support they would automatically garnish his wages, but seeing as you both are still together I am not sure how that would work. If you have the child 90% of the time then you are held as the one with custody of the child. He can join and good luck to him.

Answer 4

Of course he can join the military. Until you go to court for Child Support, he has no obligation to you. You and your child will not get any benefits from the military unless you get married. Only exception will be Child Support after you get it approved in court. He cannot claim the child as a dependent. At the current time, he can just walk away from the whole situation. Just read your additional info. What do you want to be "possible"? As I stated, without court papers, he is free to do what he wants and you cannot legally claim any of his money. He cannot claim you or the baby for tax or any other purposes.

Answer 5

Of course it's allowed.  You can be unmarried with children, even if you have custody, as long as you have what's called a "family care plan" meaning when you have to train or deploy, you have someone already lined up to take care of the child/children.

Answer 6

He is free to join the military and can claim your daughter as a dependant and she will be entitled to Tricare ( our medical insurance).

Answer 7

It sounds like you have custody of the baby and he's not taking care of either of you (I don't mean that in a bad way), so he can join the military, he can claim the child as his dependent so that the baby will have insurance and he'll get extra money for the baby (which will need to be sent to you) but he can't claim you unless you get married. Get a support arrangement in writing or DFAS (military pay) will garnish his wages

YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO GET MARRIED... if you want to you can but you don't have to... my husband and I planned on getting married last year but we waited till he got out of bootcamp to get married