Everyone knows: Being single sucks sometimes. Trying to find a relationship using dating sites. So I decided to try three of them for a month. But I deleted them after about a week, because I could never bring myself to actually go on dates with anyone who swiped right. Recently though, I started to think about how hard relationships can be for service members and veterans. So naturally, I took to Google to see if there was an online service for military dating. While I found no mobile apps, there were three promising websites: , , and. I registered for all three, and here is what I found. In retrospect, the popularity of mobile apps most likely draws the use of eligible military bachelors, because unlike these sites, the interface is more friendly and the likelihood of meeting someone is much higher. A couple days into my quest for love, I was getting messages from some people who lived five miles away, and others who lived in Germany and Japan. Those men who did reach out were often willing to share some fairly intimate personal details. In talking to them, I learned that a majority of the guys using the sites are in their late 30s, have a few kids, and are looking for a wife to settle down with. Overall, my experiences with the sites were varied, with one emerging as a clear winner. Since I find the notion of paying for online dates a little too similar to paying for sex, I gave up on the site. After a week on this site with seemingly no coherent mail, I quit it too. As a result, most of my interactions came from MilitaryCupid. The registration process was thorough: Asking my preferences from eye color all the way to income. Regardless of age though, none of them ever responded to my attempts to meet in person. We would have conversations about hobbies, school, the weather, and weekend plans, but no one wanted to exchange phone numbers, or set up a place to meet. Typically, if I asked for either a number or a real date, I was met with radio silence and never heard from the guy again. Still, I held out hope, and then I tried my luck in Norfolk, Virginia, while visiting my parents over Labor Day weekend. My plan was foiled, however, when Hurricane Hermine struck the coast and left me stuck at home with my family, where we all got drunk and played a full game of Monopoly. I lost epically, in case you were wondering. So instead, I began questioning all the people I was messaging about why they had turned to online dating. All in all, I probably spoke to about 25 different people. What struck me most was that almost all of the men that really opened up to me had their hearts broken by their girlfriends, fiancees, and wives while they were deployed. I realized how lonely they must be, and that this attempt to connect with people online was somewhat of a last resort for a lot of them … minus the guys that were just looking for nude photos, of course.
