Melissa,
I can only respond to this from a visitor visa stance as for the past two years I have brought my wife's mom and sister over and I am active duty military. The military orders do not matter as your tax return doesn't state such but I have found out that military documents seem to be a big plus in front of the embassies. Right now I am the sponsor of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and I am not even in the United States to ensure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing but I know they are. I am currently deployed to Iraq. I have never submitted tax returns. Tax returns are a verification of what you made in the previous year, however based upon your rank and the time you were on active duty your commander can write a memo stating what you made with his/her signature on it and now you have a Department of the Army document stating what you made signed by a Commissioned Officer.
Also I have two bank accounts. Word of mouth is they typically like for you to show $5000 dollars in checking or savings. You get a memo from one bank that states the amount, date opened, and deposits especially if you have direct deposit from your national guard. Use the other bank as like a saving account but on the other banks memo you just have them write the balance. You see where I am going with this. You transfer the money out of one bank and put it in another bank and your $2500 is now $5000 dollars and nothing is illegal because each bank's memo will reflect what is in the acount on that given day.
