Outside of the summer months, about 95% of families report satisfactory moves, Clarke said. My husband served 30 years in the US Air Force, and we were married for all but the first two years of his service. Reservists are likely to have civilian jobs outside their Reserve commitments. Short one year tours and even tour year tours usually only occure if you go to a difficult assignment without a family, or leave your family. And even though the number of moves a year is declining as the military shrinks, the cost of a move is going up. “The situation is that we put the stuff into our storage and we accidentally misplaced two of her vaults out of seven,” he said. Well, almost everything. ", He continued: "You get folks that really need to go to a new location to expand their skill set and gain new experiences, so the Army really needs them to move somewhere else and try something new.". 500 out of every 100,000. That's an average of three times more frequently than non-military families. For most of human history about .5% of the population died violently (murder or war) every year. For military moms, relocating their lives and uprooting their children is simply a way of life. The issue stems from the contracted packers and shippers not having the capacity to service the thousands of families that need to move in a relatively short time period, Clarke says. Standing on his deck earlier this summer, Brown pointed to the edge of a river winding through a subdivision from his back porch in Anchorage, Alaska. As he was reassigned, his faithful family followed, each time having to build new relationships and adjust to new surroundings. Reservists support active duty by being ready and “in reserve” in case active duty troops are stretched thin and more support is needed. 4% of the moving population came from abroad. The contractors the military uses are responsible for 100% of the damages incurred, Clarke said, but getting them to pay isn’t always a simple process. NOV. 16, 2016 —The percentage of Americans moving over a one-year period fell to an all time low in the United States to 11.2 percent in 2016, according to tables released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. “These folks should be focused on their mission, and shouldn’t be forced to deal with cancelled moves, lengthy delays, and scheduling blackouts that cause personal hardships for them and their families. Often young and required to move frequently, many military families struggle to maintain a two-income household, find affordable childcare and save for the future. The oil paintings ripped and the watercolor ones got wet, making the colors run. This is the reality children with parents in the military continue to face each year. He is the director of strategic plans, policy and logistics at United States Transportation Command, not the director of strategy, capabilities, policy and logistics. In fact, the average child in a military family will move six to nine times during a school career. The United States Armed Forces orchestrates between 420,000 and 450,000 Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves for … “We recognize that with the exception of a deployment of a service member away from home, this is the second-most stressful time period that most service members and their families will experience.”. When was the last time we went scuba diving?" Write to Abby Vesoulis at abby.vesoulis@time.com. “Some of the things we are able to put prices on and hope to get reimbursed for them. Most movers never even leave their own county, let alone their own state. You have 3 free articles left. Farrell said the spotty data keeps Pentagon officials from seeing what factors are driving PCS moving costs. When the family relocated from Maryland to Nebraska, the movers lost needles her daughter with spina bifida needs for medication, according to Shelly, who says it took a month and a half for the family to get new ones. More than 200 military families displaced by winter storm damage to their base housing; some wonder what’s next But as an officer with three family members, he hits the most expensive categories for pricey moves. Other things you can’t really put a price on.”. Active duty service members commit to the military full time often as a career. TIME, therefore, was unable to reach the responsible party for comment. Moving companies working with the military must be held to the highest standard of service, transparency and accountability.”. During the season, the satisfaction rate dips to as low as 80%, Clarke said. “Troops and their families frequently have to pack up their lives to move across the country or even the world in the service of our nation,” he told TIME in a statement. "But it doesn't work that way. The military doesn't let service members ship certain things, so they reimburse at the other end. In an email, Maj. Ben Sakrisson, a spokesperson for the Defense Department, wrote that the they're "convening a working group to review and revise, as necessary, the current PCS budgetary reporting requirements.". In fact, statistical data show that the average American moves once every 5 years. Hurley was on the move often, following her father, who was on active duty in the Army during her childhood. For a military child, it’s possible to have moved 10 times by the time they’re 12, and to change schools 6 to 9 times between kindergarten and high school graduation – it’s just what happens in the military. hide caption. This is your last free article. During peak season, the contractors sometimes have to contract out more help. In military jargon each move — roughly 650,000 of them each year — is called a Permanent Change of Station (PCS). In 2014, the Defense Department spent more than $4.3 billion on … When her husband’s assignment required they move from Monterey, California, to Fort Meade in Maryland in 2014, she purchased cardboard packaging tubes for her pieces to ensure they’d arrive at her new destination safely. And her family isn’t alone. You have a limited number of free articles. So, to prevent emotional attachment, the military invests over $4 billion every year into relocating troops and families. National Guard members defend the homeland. No. Most military families move every 2 to 3 years, and some even more frequently. The Army hasn't told Brown the full price tag for how much moving his family across the continent costs. And her family isn’t alone. "Some of the services report it, but they don't report it for all years.". Military families themselves come in many forms, including not only the categories familiar from civilian life—two-parent, single-parent, and so on—but also, unique to the military, dual-service families in which both parents are service members. The one thing damaged traveling all the way from Alaska, was his snow blower. © 2021 TIME USA, LLC. There is one thing you can count on as a military family. But his three-year rotation is up and Brown is set to teach English at West Point in New York. You have 1 free article left. How you get your stuff from one corner of the country or world to another depends on where you are headed and what kind of move you want to do. “We owe it to our service members and their families to ensure that the family relocation experience during the Permanent Change of Station is as low stress as possible,” Clarke says. As a percentage of the worlds population it’s never been lower than now. She’s a professional artist who sells watercolor and oil paintings online. After the move to New York, Brown said everything went smoothly. It looked at more than 10 years of data and found that basically the military doesn't keep great records on moving costs. And while losing the paintings was a financial burden, it’s not the worst thing contracted movers have done to her family over the years, Shelly said. ... for $220,000 last year. We’ve done everything we can at this point, but we are still looking for the items and once we get them, before or after the claim is settled, they will still receive their items when we locate them.” Brzezinski says they have found and delivered one of the two missing vaults, and believe the other one is somewhere on the property. The reasons behind each move are much more personal and unique than mere numbers. In the background is Lucy, the family's Schnauzer. According to the country’s military ombudsman for the Department of National Defence, Pierre Daigle, about 16,000 military personnel move in a year. Military Families. Military OneSource can help make your move easier with helpful tips, resources and hands-on information. It took more crates than he'd expected, but they were still under the limit. > View the seven most common mistakes military families make when moving to a new place All Rights Reserved. In the last few years, they've lived in Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New York. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and ranking member of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, says military families deserve to have simpler moves. In the background is Lucy, the family's Schnauzer. The Department of Defense knows the stakes are high. The petition originated as an open letter posted to Facebook by Megan Harless, a stay-at-home mother of three. Somewhere in or between Florida and Illinois, Mayes says, the moving company the military contracted to pack and ship the contents of their home lost or damaged $26,000 worth of furniture and prized possessions, including her 6-year-old son’s bed, her great grandmother’s jewelry, her children’s birth announcements and her husband’s golf clubs from his great-great grandfather. A version of this story also appeared on Alaska Public Radio. And that's a violation of the Department of Defense's own guidance that it assess how it spends taxpayer dollars. "Some of the services report it, some don't," said Brenda Farrell, who authored the report. Each year, tens of millions of people in the US relocate from their place of birth or current residence to another location within the same city, county, state, country or abroad. Updated: October 22, 2018 1:19 PM ET | Originally published: October 19, 2018 4:59 PM EDT, Inside Space Force: Here's What the New Agency Does, Underwater Noise Pollution Is Disrupting Ocean Life—But We Can Fix It. In that time, we moved (Permanent Change of Station) roughly every 3 years. Every year, the U.S. military moves hundreds of thousands of service members and their families all across the globe. 88; updated March 2017. The Pentagon is also improving its data-reporting on the program. Shelly, a mother of five children whose husband is in the Air Force, knows what that’s like. Many of Them Don't Go Well. The mover rate between 2013 and 2014 was 11.5 percent or 35.7 million people age 1 year and over. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. 62% of movers in 2017 remained in the same county after their move. “I can’t sell them anymore,” she lamented. But there are ways to lessen the stress and the transitions of moving. Subscribe for just $18. More than 100,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding better. You have 2 free articles left. "When we asked the DOD officials during our review 'When was the last time an evaluation was made of the PCS program,' none of them could recall such an evaluation being done," she said. National Guard units operate on a state level. Four of her children have special needs. She says her family has sacrificed too much to have to go through a complicated and disorderly ordeal every time they pack up their family so it can serve the country. Postings in Alaska are a year longer than in the lower 48 states because Alaska counts as an overseas rotation — similar to Korea or Germany. Global conflict and unrest have led to deployment of large numbers of military personnel (active duty, Reserves, National Guard). Teamwork creates emotional attachment. Subscribe for just $18. But that didn’t prepare Mayes for what happened in August, when William received a new assignment and her family had to move closer to his base. At only 4 years old, my twins are already living in their third city, but their dad has moved more than 10 times throughout his career. The real reason the military moves so often is emotional detachment. That's according to a report last year by the Government Accountability Office. Among the common stresses involved in relocating to a new school are the differences in achievement standards, school protocol, course offerings, extracurricular activities, and academic requirements. Shur-Way Moving & Cartage’s long distance operations manager, Eric Brzezinski told TIME the company is going through their vaults everyday to locate Mayes’ missing items. Subscribe for just $18. The deck is a sliver of calm amid the frenzy of packing inside. His wife Kristy says that's a streak of consistency compared to the seven moves they've made with the Army since getting married. Military families move an average of every two to three years, that means approximately 500,000 military children change schools every year. Since 2001, more than 2 million American children have had a parent deployed at least once. Next to divorce and death of a relative, experts say that moving is rated as the third highest cause of stress. Assistance is available for every stage of your PCS, whether you’re traveling solo or taking your family with you, so that you can seize the adventure of your move and make it as smooth and seamless as … “[Moving companies] have a business model that provides capacity to be able to satisfy the needs of America, and as a result, the needs of the Department of Defense for the average number of moves that happen per week, per month, throughout the year,” he says. Lt. Col. Alan Brown stands in his garage, filled with boxes that will be sent to the family's new home in New York. “They never treat us families right,” she said. Only the Marines move families around a date, which is about Jun every year. Before doing anything else, organize your move on paper. The statistic I have heard - though college was a few years ago, it may not be current - is that the average family in America moves once every 7 years. House Hunting Prior to a Move . His family has lived in this house for three years. But Sakrisson did not provide a timeline, and GAO's Farrell says it will be more than a year before the working group begins meetings. "You got to go buy mops, you got to go buy cleaning supplies, you got to go buy ketchup and mustard and all the stuff that we have to leave behind," Brown said. The family has moved nine times in the four years she served in the Army, lastly as a battalion maintenance officer, and the 13 years her husband has, currently as a logistics officer. But that doesn’t help Mayes, who has waited months to be reunited with her prized possessions. "The Army could save a bunch of money — if we were all stationed here for four or five years, it would cut down on the rotation," Brown said. The United States Armed Forces orchestrates between 420,000 and 450,000 Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves for military families annually, Rear Admiral Peter Clarke, director of strategic plans, policy and logistics at United States Transportation Command, tells TIME. “When you’re asking a family to pick up and move every two years — across the country and around the world — when things get broken and things get lost, it becomes a financial burden on that family,” Harless says. "We came up here for the stability, because before this we'd moved annually and that got quite challenging," she said. “They don’t have the capacity to fully support our peak of the peak move period with quality movers and with sufficient truckers to prevent some of the problems that occur periodically and that have been exasperated this year.” At the same time, Clarke says, many families want to move during the summer months, so that their kids aren’t disrupted during the school year. Most tours with a family are 3 years, one year extensions can happen--moreso on overseas tours. Because the government covers moving costs, there's not really a need to make choices about what stays or goes. U.S. Transportation Command is considering a number of solutions to minimize the number of Permanent Change of Station transitions that have to take place during peak season. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Australian Women Force a Reckoning on Sexism, The Military Moves Hundreds of Thousands of Families Each Summer. Lt. Col. Alan Brown and his family are among the many that have had to move over and over again for his military career. Moving can be full of new opportunities and new experiences – each one a little different. Here’s a breakdown: 2. 34% of movers relocated to a different county (including same-state and different-state moves). Every year, the U.S. military moves hundreds of thousands of service members and their families all across the globe. Not always. Criticism and anecdotes about excesses in the program are common, but there are very legitimate reasons why the military moves people so often. Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media Subscribe for just $18. Together, that equals $12,120 of yearly income before you even get to pay. For example, Brown pointed to his scuba-diving equipment. One of the many challenges that you will be faced with on your journey is a Permanent Change of Station ( PCS). As a First Class Petty Officer in the Navy, being stationed on a destroyer ship in the middle of an ocean is just part of William Mayes’ job description. You can connect with a counselor to schedule an appointment 24/7 over the phone, in person, via secure online live chat or via … These “citizen soldiers” are generally called to serve after Reservists have been activated. A few months before your the move to your next duty station, military members are allowed a permissive TDY (Temporary Duty) for up to 10 days in conjunction with a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move between and within the … And this is what it looks like: boxes, furniture, piles of stuff, everything from the essentials to random clutter. The Average Military Family Moves Every Two to Three Years That's three times more frequently than the average civilian family. This story is part of a project we're calling "Back at Base," in which NPR — along with public radio stations around the country — is chronicling the lives of America's troops where they live. Moreover, military families’ needs change over time as they move through personal It adds up to fewer than 4 percent of the military's personnel budget. More than 900,000 children have experienced the deployment of one or both parents multiple times. But instead of rolling the artwork into the tubes, Shelly, who asked that her last name not be used, says the movers folded her masterpieces and put them into boxes. Lt. Col. Alan Brown stands in his garage, filled with boxes that will be sent to the family's new home in New York. Military OneSource offers free, confidential non-medical counseling to discuss adjustment difficulties or ways to manage relocation stress. In 2014, the Defense Department spent more than $4.3 billion on moving costs, but officials don't know where all that money is going. A move like Brown's — an officer, with a family, in a remote posting — would have cost around $11,000 in 2001 and costs a little less than $16,000 today. About 40% of them take place in the summer. Though their claim was $26,000, she said her family “would be lucky to see $10,000 of that.”. For the past several years, the mover rate has remained between 11.5 and 12.5 percent, according to new 2014 statistics released today from the U.S. Census Bureau. And the costs include more than freight. Thank you for reading TIME. "I haven't used those in a long time. Being emotionally attached makes it a lot harder to lose a life on the battlefield. There is no incentive to shed. report last year by the Government Accountability Office. A previous version of this story misstated the title of Rear Admiral Peter Clarke. As for how many families move every year, you could get a rough estimate (based on moving every 7 years) as 1/7 of all families with children living at home will move within a given year. That means, every summer, thousands — if not tens of thousands — of Permanent Change of Station moves don’t go as planned for military families. Military families move an average of once every three years. “We do apologize. Shelly says that during her move from California to Maryland, there were so many contractors involved that it was hard to find who to hold accountable for their broken goods and furniture. Fortunately, all moving expenses for current military members and often their dependents are paid for by the military. Farrell says Defense officials have not acted on many of the policy commendations in the report. Brown asked his wife. Traci Mayes knew there would be times her husband would be away when he joined the military. The first four ranks are bringing in $2,904 in BAS each year, plus at least $9,216 in BAH each year. Even so, it is worthwhile to double-check your eligibility, and make sure you utilize moving services that don’t cost more than your military moving allowances will cover. Organizing Your Move. #milspouse Click To Tweet