If a soldier does not updated his will after a divorce does the ex spouse or the parents have legal rights?

This answer is not intended to provide you with specific legal advice, or to create any attorney-client relationship.

The short answer to your question as to whether the parents may have rights to the soldier's remains is maybe.

Under Georgia law, the soldier's divorce would normally have caused his existing Will to be interpreted as if his ex-wife predeceased him. Therefore, if the Will has a provision stating that the wife was the first person to make decisions regarding his remains upon his death, that provision would likely be properly read as if the ex-wife were deceased.

However, there are other factors which could affect who has rights to the body, such as whether the soldier had an Advance Directive for Health Care, and if so, whether that document provided that the ex-wife would no longer be an agent in the event of their divorce, what state he was considered to legally reside in at the time of his death, who his legal heirs or next-of-kin would be (normally, the ex-wife would not be an heir, but children would be in line before his parents, for example), and whether the applicable law would provide that the heirs or next of kin would control the remains. Therefore, based on the information provided in your question, it is not possible to give you a straight yes-or-no answer.