One thought on “Will DoD’s plan to improve quality of life be different this time?”
Matt said:
November 21, 2023 at 06:48
The article addresses mostly Army efforts but the issues span the DoD, as the title notes. The short answer is: no. I don’t even know the plans but I can guess at the solutions to the listed problems:
Problems – Issues causing decreased quality of life: (1) damaged and lost HHG that are reimbursed at a tiny fraction of what they were worth, (2) housing instability, (3) spouse unemployment, (4) family mental health issues, (5) degradation of social networks, (6) and more.
Likely “solutions”: (1) new HHG contracts with different predatory companies and a new difficult to access online portal (current one is blocked by most systems), (2) more on-base or govt housing – service members unable to build home equity, inability to chose where they want to live or kids to go to school, among other limitations, (3) more jobs at exchange and commissary – self evidently suboptimal. Education benefits – but even with a new govt funded education they won’t be able to keep a job or build equity in the company, (4) resilience GMTs … still no family or marital counseling covered by Tricare, (5) live in housing, it’s all the social network a person needs…
A piecemeal approach could be made for the wealth of problems. But these problems are almost all resulting from frequent and dramatic (against wishes, current PDS cut short, etc) PCS. So, we could attempt to compensate for the consequences of the current PCS culture or change it and allow service members to homeport or otherwise have greater choice and stability in where they live. There are creative solutions to maintaining operational readiness across the globe while also adopting a new PCS/homeport paradigm, they just haven’t been explored yet – this should be a major focus of the Navy’s talent acquisition and retention working groups.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 
November 21, 2023 at 06:48
The article addresses mostly Army efforts but the issues span the DoD, as the title notes. The short answer is: no. I don’t even know the plans but I can guess at the solutions to the listed problems:
Problems – Issues causing decreased quality of life: (1) damaged and lost HHG that are reimbursed at a tiny fraction of what they were worth, (2) housing instability, (3) spouse unemployment, (4) family mental health issues, (5) degradation of social networks, (6) and more.
Likely “solutions”: (1) new HHG contracts with different predatory companies and a new difficult to access online portal (current one is blocked by most systems), (2) more on-base or govt housing – service members unable to build home equity, inability to chose where they want to live or kids to go to school, among other limitations, (3) more jobs at exchange and commissary – self evidently suboptimal. Education benefits – but even with a new govt funded education they won’t be able to keep a job or build equity in the company, (4) resilience GMTs … still no family or marital counseling covered by Tricare, (5) live in housing, it’s all the social network a person needs…
A piecemeal approach could be made for the wealth of problems. But these problems are almost all resulting from frequent and dramatic (against wishes, current PDS cut short, etc) PCS. So, we could attempt to compensate for the consequences of the current PCS culture or change it and allow service members to homeport or otherwise have greater choice and stability in where they live. There are creative solutions to maintaining operational readiness across the globe while also adopting a new PCS/homeport paradigm, they just haven’t been explored yet – this should be a major focus of the Navy’s talent acquisition and retention working groups.
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