What is the best advice you have for having a successful relationship/marriage in the Army?

Professional marriage and career counseling - a lot of counseling - to ensure you understand each other, communicate well, argue without destroying each other, preserve spontaneity, empathy, affection, and know when it is appropriate time to go. Warmest Regards, Sandy :)
CPT Jack Durish CMDCM Gene Treants MAJ Joseph Parker

Stay Single as long as possible, but when you marry, keep your priorities in order. My wife knew that my career was important to us both and we were part of the Navy together as a team. If I had to deploy I left her prepared as much as possible. We discussed what to do in case of emergencies with the house, car, etc and had all of the needed paperwork. That was the logistics part.
Then we also covered our marriage as 1LT Sandy Annala talked about - "communicate well, argue without destroying each other, preserve spontaneity, empathy, affection." We are still married after over 40 years, 20 in the Navy.

Be honest and upfront about the requirements the military will place on you with your soon to be spouse. Tell her/him exactly what field time entails, deployments, and the lack of communications technology you will often encounter while out. Go through the budget, budget in wiggle room (your spouse is human and has human needs they don't always account for). Put as many bills on an automatic payment plan as possible. Plan to have at least three bank accounts. Set an allotment to yours and theirs. The rest will go to the main, automatic bill pay account. Every time a reenlistment comes up, talk it over with your spouse and make sure they still want to be your support structure. Just like you can ETS, the spouse might want to return to civilian life as well. Make it a joint decision to continue service.

The area surrounding a base is the worst place to find a spouse. There are obviously exceptions, but its a proven rule of thumb. I would also be hesitant to date anyone that starts talking to you in the service that wouldn't look twice at you in highschool. If you have a gf when you go in thats usually a recipe for success. Whatever you do though, don't get married because of deployments or babies. I always recommend going through your first deployment as boy friend/girl friend or even go through it engaged, but deployments are the best indicator of how the marriage will survive.

Unless you absolutely cannot "restrain" yourself...and I think you know what I mean...I would stay single in the military. Too much "drama" and "stress," especially if your wife is not self-sufficient when you enlist. The Army will consume your time, and your wife will keep asking, 'why are you home so late,' 'why do you have to work weekends,' why can't you stay with the kids this time?' When you commit to the Army, and that's what it is, a "commitment"...the same commitment you'll make when you get married. If you absolutely want to be married, especially at your age, try the Reserves or National Guard, which is part-time duty UNTIL you get deployed...AND you will get deployed. You can stay in your home state, and your wife will have her family around and nearby.

Work together as a team, talk over everything, take no day for granted, don't go to bed mad, forgive a lot

Marry your career first. It is very difficult to become a great Soldier while attempting to become a great husband. Not impossible but difficult. Once you get up the ladder a bit and feel comfortable then give it a shot. Just don't forget who pays your check.

Jordan-Hard to improve on the great advice already given, but here's my take. As a high school student, I'm going to assume you are not currently married. I'm also going to assume that you're interested in joining the Armed Forces, and are curious as to the impacts on one's personal life, to include relationships. If correct, then consider that the first few years of any enlistment will constitute a complete transformation for you. You'll go from being an individual, to being part of a greater whole. You will develop in ways that will result in a completely different man walking out than the one who walked in. You will act, think and feel differently...I'd wait until you've had time to get to know yourself at that point before even thinking about asking someone else to take on that challenge.

It may sound harsh, but the wise bet is to enter basic training with as few "distractions" as possible, and keep it that way as long as you can.

Don't marry after a few days. Don't marry for BAH. Don't marry to leave the barracks. Finally, don't marry a whore. If she is a whore or if you a little unfaithful yourself do two people a favor and stay single.

Don't let all of these folks scare you. I wasn't looking to marry young, but found the right girl...early. I was 20 when we married, 23 when we had our first kid. It's been a little over 27 years and we're still happily married. You will have to sacrifice and compromise on a lot of things. Military spouses have to be way more understanding and capable than other spouses. (my mother never had a driver's license and never changed a flat tire) My wife had to repair cars and toilets while I was gone...replace drywall...play catch with my son...pay all of the bills...clean up kid's puke by herself....AND go to bed alone many nights and be okay with that. I sacrificed, as well. Advancement wasn't my main priority once I had kids. I retired as an E-6 and I'm okay with that because I was home for the birth of all of my kids. I only missed one birthday and no Christmas's. It can work, but it's hard. Eventhough I was young (and seeing that you are in high school), I would tell you to wait a little while. Your girl needs to go to college and get a degree. If both of you are still in love after that, knock yourself out. Good luck.