We would wholeheartedly disagree. Indeed, household goods should be the platform around which we begin to build an integrated relocation program. In our written statement you will find a diagram of exactly how fragmented the permanent change of station process is for service members and their families. DoD members do not move once or twice, the average career service member moves from eight to twenty times compared to the average corporate transferee who moves an average of four times in a career. Government owned or leased housing is available to only about one-third of the DoD population on a worldwide basis and that housing is severely limited in metropolitan areas.
Younger families have the most difficulty when moving.
These service members and families have less experience and fewer resources to navigate the loosely integrated, decentralized and complex PCS system. In our written statement we reference the studies and research that document the severe problems surrounding the military move process. On the contrary, taking these hardships into consideration, we suggest that not only are military families entitled to the services we can provide, but also these are the very minimum services that they deserve. And, if we wish to compete with the private sector to recruit and retain top talent for the Armed Forces, we must add managed relocation to DoD's arsenal of benefits. We commend DoD for testing the integrated relocation model concept on a very small basis at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia and for testing other commercial best practices through the MTMC reengineering pilot.