Can a mother who has custody transfer guardianship of child before deployed overseas to prevent husband from getting custody

The general national mentality is that there can be only one custodial parent and one non-custodial parent. The child support apparatus would have to be rebuilt if others outside the two-parent circle entered the picture. That means there can be no other kind of parent except parens patriae, which is the state.

Military deployment is almost a guaranty for the loss of custody of the service member's child. The court will typically reason that deployment is a change of circumstances warranting a flip. Since only one parent remains, this flip is in the best interests of the child.

What a relief this is for the non-custodial parent. Suddenly, the huge dollop of dollars being subtracted from the paycheck has stopped (via a petition filed by the non-custodial parent). Suddenly, the threat of loss of licenses (if the custodial service member was a bit too active in enforcing the child support order) has stopped as has the risk of incarceration. The child is no longer gone for two weeks at a time. There isn't a single non-custodial parent out there who would not celebrate at a sudden change of custody. Just try to regain the child from such a parent: he'll hire a battalion of lawyers to keep the child and throw the child support monkey on the service member's back.

Once on the service member's back, by the time support catches up, significant arrearages are possible. This could trigger the federal statute that enforces child support so the service member could be detained and arrested by his own military chain of command for violating a federal statute that requires its service members to pay support. This is an assault on the mind of the service member as he is not able to communicate with his child because of the distance and the battlefield conditions.

Many states have realized they are shooting themselves in the foot by allowing service members to depart for war grieving over a flip of custody. Many have enacted band-aide fixes limiting an award of custody to only "temporary" status. The idea is that "temporary" is not as shocking as "permanent". However, in reality, a temporary custody flip is "permanent" because the custodial parent is free to place the child in any school, extra curricular activity to include leaving the state with the child. No visitation is awarded in these situations, so the freedom of movement is absolute. Trying to get the child back requires a new showing of changed circumstances along with the flip back being in the child's best interests. This is difficult to do with the child ensconced in a new environment and the service member likely suffering from injuries and trauma.

In most states, you cannot change guardianship because the preference always goes to the biological parent. This prevents the fraud of the "golden goose": that's the one where a kid of a wealthy non-custodial parent is passed around so that others can enjoy the child support payments that come with the kid. The fight is between the two biologicals and unless you get the opponent parent to stipulate to a guardian, the mere act of seeking a legal guardianship will alert the opponent who will file a custody petition.

I could go on and on, but for the immediate future, be very careful in everything you do. Seek the advice of competent counsel and never try to be your own attorney. This is not a tire you are trying to change.

I am unsure if this is just the state of North Carolina, however Bev Perdue out here approved a law to protect deploying soldiers simply for a situation like this. It allows temporary transfer of her custody to another protecting her while she is serving or deployed. Look into this and it will give you some relief. Here is the link to look it up. If anything it can be attached to the lawyer's paper work and set an example for other states to recognize and protect our soldiers rights.

http://ssl.csg.org/dockets/29cycle/29A/2009adocketbills/1929a06nc.pdf