You've all heard the news. Hackers of the website, Ashley Madison, which helps married folks have affairs, have released users' names.
The jokes and scathing remarks have been centered on reality tv star, and ultra conservative, Josh Duggar who was listed as a user.
But what you may have missed in all that snickering was the fact that there are allegedly a lot of military email addresses listed with Duggar's.
The hack revealed 37 million users on the site. Among those, an unofficial count includes 6,788 addresses ending in "army.mil" addresses, 1,665 ending in "navy.mil," 809 ending in "usmc.mil" (for U.S. Marine Corps) and 206 addresses ending in the newer domain "mail.mil."
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest, non-military federal user of Ashley Madison, with 104 emails from the "va.gov" domain found in the list. Another 88 emails were from the Federal Bureau of Prisons and 45 were from the Department of Homeland Security.
What does this mean for military families? There may be a lot of very, very hard times ahead.
Inevitably, many of these emails are legitimate. The owners are using the site. They are having affairs. They are lying. They are cheating.
And military spouses are going to find out in the worst way possible, along with the entire nation who can also see her husband's email listed.
On Thursday Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said service members who have used the site could face disciplinary action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Use of an official computer or email account to access pornography or register on sites like AshleyMadison.com as well as adultery are punishable under the UCMJ.
"Yes, the services are looking into it as well they should be," Carter said.
So, while you are snickering under your breath, remember, lives are being destroyed. Lies are unraveling and military spouses who may be acquaintances or dear friends are dealing with the most difficult hardship they have ever faced.
Be kind. Be gentle. Be there to help, not mock.
You never know when a skeleton may come tumbling out of your own family's closet.
