While it's not legally impossible to terminate parental rights in favor of one parent, courts generally want children to have TWO parents (they want a backup plan for if one parent gets hit by a bus).
What that comes down to is that the court is only likley to entertain severing a father's rights AND responsibilities to their child, and - more importantly - the CHILD'S right to know and be supported by their father, if:
a) You are re-married AND your new husband is willing to adopt the child (returning the child to the desired situation of having TWO parents legally responsible), or
b) dad is somehow of such a great danger or detriment that dad's presence as a factor in the child's life has more harmful than redeeming qualities (ie dad is a convicted rapist or child molester, or is looking at an extended prison sentence after a lengthy criminal history, or suffers some disabling or dangerous mental illness, etc.), or
c) You can prove to the satisfaction of the court that you've got a strong history of making BIG money, have a solid financial nestegg set up on behalf of the child (ie a well endowed trust fund AND a trustee willing and able to act as guardian, who meets the court's approval, should that bus ever find its mark and leave the child parentless.
Short of that, the courts only concern isn't focused on what the parents want - only what's best for the child - and unless there is something VERY wrong with dad, the court will typically only let dad off the hook for child support if one of the above conditions are met. Dad can of course choose not to exercise any rights such as visitation, but the court isn't going to short change the child out of dad's support (even if the support money isn't needed NOW, no one can know what'll happen to YOU or your income tomorrow, and the court would expect that funds not needed today would be put away for the child's benefit in the future).
Also, if a major part of dad's absence was due to military service, the court isn't going to hold that against him. It's an inherent situation associated with having children with members of the military who are in active service and courts typically assume that both parties knew what they signed up for in such situations.
So while it is POSSIBLE, it doesn't happen often, and when it does it's typically due to one of the three scenarios above.
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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.
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