I’m gonna keep this as short as possible…
My wife apparently cheated on me 5 times along with a 3-year affair. Divorce is a sure thing. I am active duty navy on sea duty stationed in Jacksonville Florida, and I deploy in the fall. Outside of my upcoming deployment, being on sea duty as, I am for the next three years, I will be in and out of the area constantly. She is in the Air Guard attached to a unit in Anchorage Alaska, where we first lived when we got married 8 years ago. And just to note, we are both residents of Florida now.

She wants to take the kids to Alaska while I’m deployed pretty much for the entire school year. I am fine with this as long as it is written in the divorce decree that that is a temporary solution, and that state that she will be moving back down to Jacksonville following my return in the spring/end of school year. I will be having a lawyer look at this to verify that I cannot get screwed in the situation if she tries to keep the kids up there.

She does not love Florida, her dream custody arrangement would be for her to get primary caregiver and keep the kids in Alaska. Obviously, I have a problem with this in that it almost guarantees that I will barely see my kids for the rest of the time I am on active duty and could be forced to move to anchorage. I told her if she tries fights me in coming back down to Jacksonville after I get back from deployment I will a lawyer immediately and try to get her back down. Even if she stays in Florida for a few years, she does not want to stay more than a couple years while I finish up my active duty commitment. I am fine in Florida and honestly, I don’t know how any court would let her permanently bring the kids up to Alaska, but was hoping to get some insight before I talk to a lawyer when I get back home(I’m out at sea for a few weeks rn).

She wants to do a no lawyer divorce and only use mediation. I would be fine with this as long as I can get her to agree that the kids permanent home is where we have lived for the last year in Jacksonville. However, I see this being a huge issue going forward.

Again, I’m really just looking for any insight or things I should be doing right now prior to when I can see a lawyer. She hasn’t been terribly hostile and isn’t really asking for full child support or any alimony, but I fear as this child custody argument goes on, she will find more reasons to ask for financial support for me.