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The life of military service members and their families is not for the faint of heart – frequent deployments and rotations, high-stress environments, and a uniquely challenging work/life balance. As an Army veteran, decade-plus Army spouse, and mother, I know these challenges are worth it to defend the freedoms and liberties we enjoy as Americans.
But one of the programs that’s supposed to help make the lives of military families a little easier is on the verge of a major overhaul – with no safety net if things go wrong, and no industry buy-in to help the government deliver on its overpromises. The government is spending billions of dollars to change the way military families’ personal belongings are moved to their new installations under the new Global Household Goods Contract (GHC), which is being met with growing concerns from our military community and professional movers.
I’ve experienced 11 permanent changes of station (PCS), each of them different – as an Army service member, as a dual military family, while pregnant, with young kids, and sometimes even alone while my husband was deployed. These gave me a unique experience to see the process, overseen by the Department of Defense’s Transportation Command (TRANSCOM), from multiple perspectives as It’s not uncommon for much of the planning and executing process to fall to the spouse to manage. That not only includes the logistics of the PCS process, but also getting everything set up at the next location: school enrollment, medical providers, and more.
However, professional moving companies and I have repeatedly raised concerns with the new contract, and if those issues aren’t resolved, there might not be enough movers to meet the demands of the hundreds of thousands of relocating military families. Meaning, we’ll see families who may be packed but without a truck to pick up the shipment, delayed deliveries, and a potentially slow and tedious claims process for resolution. If the program fails like many are predicting it will, military families are the ones who will suffer – like we’ve repeatedly seen with past government contracts privatizing our quality of life sectors, such as healthcare and housing.
Over the last five years, I have worked with Congress, TRANSCOM, and the moving industry from my unique position as an Army veteran and military spouse to help streamline the process and improve the experience. I’ve worked to bring awareness to pain points that military families have with the relocation process, and to implement several new policies to improve the program, such as extending the deadline for families to file claims and requiring tamper-evident seals on moving crates. The DOD was initially a collaborative partner in making the system what it is today, mandating several successful improvements. But now it seems committed to ushering in a new, untested program while painting the current system as subpar — ignoring the improvements that have already been made.
Despite some of TRANSCOM’s misleading statements, data shows that military families are overwhelmingly satisfied with how the system has improved. An independent scientific survey found that military families are tremendously satisfied with military moves, with satisfaction hitting 90%. This starkly contrasts with TRANSCOM’s public claims that customer satisfaction is just 83% for 2024, up from 78% in 2023. TRANSCOM’s own publicly available dashboard is actually closer to the results of the independent survey, showing 88.9% satisfaction during the peak season and 93% satisfaction in 2024 so far. Whether intentional or not, manipulating the narrative of challenges and disruptions faced by military families in order to use them as a pawn in a larger game is wrong. The satisfaction rates for the current system show the changes are working, and worth continuing rather than jumping ship to a program that’s had no pilot program or feasibility study done.
If the government truly wants to continue improving the moving experience for military families, it needs to start by being honest about where things stand. Instead, we’re left wondering why TRANSCOM is shelling out billions of dollars to throw out all the progress we’ve made together in favor of a new untested system. Military families are the ones who will pay the price when this new system fails.
Megan Harless is a veteran and military spouse of over 18 years, experiencing 11 moves with the military. She has worked on PCS reform to help improve the experience for military families with all stakeholders involved.
