The Defense Commissary Agency has taken steps since August to lessen the impact of possible disruptions, said John E. Hall, director and CEO of the agency.

That includes increased grocery orders for commissaries in Europe and Puerto Rico, which would be affected by a port work stoppage. Officials are also working with the industry sealift carriers to make sure all booked containers clear the port of Norfolk, Virginia, before the end of September, he said.

If a strike does happen, Hall said, DeCA is preparing to be able to use military airlifts of priority products into Europe and Puerto Rico.

That includes fresh beef, items such as baby formula, baby food, bread, hot and cold cereal, cheese, eggs, frozen juice, milk, frozen vegetables and certain canned foods.

“If we have additional capacity, we will also include highly sensitive chilled products,” he said.

Those decisions about airlifts will be based on customer need, product shelf life, projected port deliveries, and availability of products from local and U.S. suppliers.

“DeCA can assure our customers that we diligently monitor inventory levels and maintain regular communications with our industry suppliers to support the grocery needs of our patrons,” Hall added.

The general consensus is that if the strike is goes on for more than a week, it would cause major disruptions. It could take five to six weeks to recover after even one week of a strike.

And other shipments in the military community could be affected, too, such as shipments to and from overseas of service members’ household goods and vehicles, which go on commercial carriers.

U.S. Transportation Command did not respond by Military Times’ deadline to questions about the potential effects on service members and families, and any actions being taken to plan to mitigate any problems.

The International Longshoremen’s Association’s six-year contract is set to expire on Monday, and the union says it will strike at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. A strike would shut down as many as 36 ports that handle nearly half of the cargo going in and out of the U.S. on ships, the AP noted.

If a strike does happen, it would be the first national work stoppage by the ILA since 1977, according to the AP. Even a brief strike would cause disruptions to the economy, and create a shipping backlog.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the U.S. Maritime Alliance, representing East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, posted a statement online Thursday that they’ve filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, asking that federal agency to require the Longshoremen’s union to resume bargaining.

It’s not clear how many aspects of the military community this would affect. ILA President Harold Daggett posted on the union’s Facebook page that their 85,000 members will continue to handle all military cargo, even if there is a strike. The union will also continue to work passenger cruise vessels, Daggett said.

Military stores scrambling to get baby formula -- what new parents need to know

Military exchanges

Exchange officials say they don’t expect stores to be affected by a short-time strike, but that will change if there is a prolonged strike, just as it will affect retail stores across the country.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Navy Exchange Service Command have been increasing their stock over the last several weeks, and a short-term strike isn’t expected to affect customers..

AAFES’ logistics and merchandising teams are working to ensure exchange stores are prepared for possible broader challenges in the event of a longer shutdown of ports, said AAFES spokesman Chris Ward

In addition to increasing stock to bolster levels in overseas distribution centers, NEXCOM officials have put airfreight carriers on standby in case they need to ship merchandise by air, spokesperson Kristine Sturkie said.

“In the event of a prolonged strike, NEXCOM would pivot to shipping ocean containers from the West Coast and air freighting merchandise, as needed, to fill gaps in the pipeline,” she said. “Depending on the length of time of the potential strike, NEXCOM can move shipments from the West Coast to Europe, Bahrain and Djibouti, ensuring we have the merchandise our military members and families need on our shelves.”

Marine Corps exchange customers should see minimal impact as their exchanges don’t move products in or out of East Coast or Gulf Coast ports. Since all their overseas bases are in the Pacific, their direct operations are West Coast-focused, spokesperson Bryan Driver said.

But he noted that their vendors might be affected by the strikes, “with as-yet-undetermined future impact to our supply chain.”

The looming strike comes at a time when the military exchanges have been getting shipments of holiday items in preparation for the heavy Christmas shopping season. Officials don’t expect those shipments to be affected. Many of the Navy exchange holiday items have already shipped to the overseas stores, said NEXCOM’s Sturkie.

Household goods shipments

The moving industry is also unclear about which military cargo would be moved and whether it would include service members’ household goods in the event of strikes.

“We haven’t heard directly from the [International Longshoremen’s Association] on military cargo, or [household goods] specifically,” said Daniel Bradley, vice president of government and military relations for the International Association of Movers. “We hope to have more clarity with respect to what cargo may continue to be moved if a strike occurs.”

He said it’s not clear if dockworkers would know which shipments to move, “since outside of military-centered ports and obvious military cargo, most [household goods] shipments are containerized and not as obvious.”

If you’ve already registered to vote, requested your ballot and received your ballot, fill out that ballot and return it as soon as possible, said Scott Wiedmann, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, or FVAP. Give it plenty of time to get back to your local election officials.

About three-fourths of the 1.4 million active duty service members are eligible to vote by absentee ballot because they are stationed away from their voting residence, according to FVAP. In addition, their family members can vote by absentee ballot.

Over the years, FVAP, postal officials, lawmakers, local and state election officials and others have worked to shore up the processes for getting absentee ballots to local election officials in time to be counted.

Your voting residence is within your state of legal residence or domicile. For service members, it is typically the same address listed on your Leave and Earnings Statement.

Check the deadline for your returned ballot based on your state. According to FVAP.gov, the Military Postal Service Agency also has recommended mailing dates for the Nov. 5 election, although officials recommend returning the voted ballot as soon as you receive from you election officials.

Those recommended dates include:

From a ship at sea: Oct. 1.

From outside the United States: Oct. 24.

Stateside: Oct. 31.

And again this year, military members and eligible family members living overseas are able to use the free expedited mail service, using the Label 11-DoD at their military post office.

Military absentee voters, whether voting from overseas or from another location in the U.S. when they’re away from their voting residence, have certain protections under federal law. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, commonly referred to as UOCAVA, applies to military members and their eligible family members who are away from their voting residence, as well as U.S. citizens living overseas. Among other things, UOCAVA requires states to transmit absentee ballots to UOCAVA voters who have requested them, no later than 45 days before a federal election.

Need to register to vote?

If you haven’t registered to vote, you still have time. The FVAP.gov site can help. Voting assistance offices at military installations can also provide specific information. The services also provide voting assistance officers at the unit level; if you can’t find assistance locally, you can contact your service branch voting action officer.

Military absentee voters can use the Federal Post Card Application, or FPCA, to both register to vote and to simultaneously request their absentee ballot from their local election jurisdiction. Some states allow voters to send their FPCA electronically. You can download the FCPA from the FVAP.gov site. Deadlines for requesting the ballot also vary depending on the state. Voters can find specifics on states’ deadlines on the FVAP site.

Don’t assume you’ll automatically receive an absentee ballot if you voted by absentee ballot in previous years. FVAP officials encourage military voters to send the FPCA every year and when they move.

Voters can also request absentee ballots through state applications.

However, officials encourage the use of the FPCA among military absentee voters and U.S. citizens living overseas. Returned ballots requested using the FPCA were counted by local election officials at a higher percentage than ballots requested through state applications, according to an analysis of the 2020 general election conducted by FVAP.

Tips to help your vote get counted

FVAP reminds absentee voters to provide a complete mailing address to their local election officials, whether they are overseas or stateside.

States have reported that common reasons for ballots to be rejected are missed deadlines for ballot returns, and missing signatures on their voted absentee ballot package, Weidmann said.

So FVAP encourages voters to stay up-to-date with their respective state’s deadlines, as well as the absentee voting requirements of their state.

What if you don’t receive your ballot in time?

If voters haven’t been able to receive their requested state ballot by mail or electronically, Weidmann said, they should download a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, or FWAB, from FVAP.gov and submit it. If the state absentee ballot arrives after the FWAB has been sent, voters can fill out and mail that state official ballot, too. Only one ballot will be counted. On average, the number of FWAB downloads have been about 50% below the numbers from 2020 at this point in the election cycle, he said.

More resources

-Check the status of your registration and ballot through your state site at https://www.fvap.gov/links#verification

-Check your state’s specific deadlines at https://www.fvap.gov/military-voter

-Add election dates and reminders to your mobile calendar at https://www.fvap.gov/calendar-alerts

-The non-partisan Overseas Vote Foundation also offers extensive information and assistance in the absentee voting process.

Turning those perceptions around — toward a more positive view of the military experience — could be key in addressing issues of military spouse unemployment and veteran unemployment, as well as larger issues around recruiting and retention, according to Kevin Schmiegel, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who is chief executive officer of ZeroMils, a social impact consulting firm.

“To us, painting a picture that veterans and spouses and our families are broken, are challenged, isn’t right,” Schmiegel said earlier this month at the Defense News Conference.

He and another Marine founded the consulting firm several years ago “in response to growing trends that we saw in the public, private and nonprofit sectors that painted a picture about veterans, military spouses and our families that we didn’t like,” Schmiegel said.

Changing that narrative will help move the needle on spouse and veteran unemployment, he said.

“It’s on us to change the narrative, veterans and military spouses, one at a time,” Schmiegel added

ZeroMils was founded “on the premise that we could work with multiple corporations, multiple nonprofits to change the narrative about how our community is seen and heard in the workplace and society.”

There are other big issues at stake, he said: military recruiting and retention. “The fact is, young people think veterans, military spouses and our families are challenged and broken,” Schmiegel said.

He cited a Defense Department statistic that 62% of young people think all veterans have a psychological disorder.

“That’s largely driven by a narrative from a host of nonprofits that paint a picture that we are broken, we are victims,” he said. If that narrative can change, Schmiegel thinks the numbers of young people with the propensity to join the military will increase.

Currently just about 9% of young people between the ages of 16 and 21 have the propensity to serve in the military, according to a 2022 survey by the National Military Family Association.

Too often, veterans and military spouses have the wrong approach in talking about their service, Schmiegel said. When it comes to hiring military spouses, sometimes employers think it’s a challenge.

“But the landscape has changed. Ten and a half million unfilled jobs in America is a lot of unfilled jobs. As a talent pool, as a resource, there is no better talent pool than veterans and military spouses. We have to start talking to employers that way. When we go into an interview and we’re looking for meaningful employment, I think we need to take the narrative back and talk about our service in a different way,” he said.

For companies and other organizations to say they are “military-friendly and military-ready” isn’t good enough, Schmiegel said.

“What does that mean? You’re doing us a favor by giving us a job? You’re being friendly to us? What are you doing to help us grow and thrive? Culturally, companies have to consider that this is not just about putting butts in seats,” he said. “If you have a skills gap of hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands, you have to build a culture that gives veterans and military spouses more than just a job…. What else are you doing to help them find purpose through continued service?”

Some employers might provide employee resource groups to help veterans and spouses connect with each other, share experiences, and focus on helping them take care of their physical and mental health. Employers need to create a culture for veterans and spouses that improves job satisfaction, performance and retention.

Veterans jobless rate drops to lowest average in more than 20 years

Inroads have been made in tackling the problems of veteran unemployment, thanks to efforts of government, companies and private organizations like Hiring Our Heroes. The unemployment rate for all veterans has dropped from 8.3% in 2011 to 3.4% in August, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But spouse unemployment has remained persistently above 21%, according to various surveys, although the Department of Labor doesn’t track spouse unemployment as it does veteran unemployment. A key difference between the two populations is that active duty spouses are likely to move every several years when their service member is transferred, which makes it difficult to find and maintain employment.

She began the fellowship in April 2023, a few months after the DOD launched the Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot, or MSCAP, program, where spouses are matched with participating companies and DOD pays the salaries of the spouses during the 12 weeks.

The hope is that companies will hire them full-time as a result of the fellowship, but there’s no guarantee. This program is one of a number of DOD initiatives to tackle the issue of military spouse unemployment, exacerbated by a lifestyle that involves frequent moves. The military spouse unemployment rate has remained persistently above 20% for over a decade.

Bautista is one of 703 spouses who have completed fellowships under the pilot program. Of those, about 600 have received employment offers from their host employer, more than five times the number from a year ago.

The program first started accepting applications in December 2022.

Defense officials are pleased with the outcomes of the career accelerator program, said DOD spokeswoman Jade Fulce. However, she said, “we need to continue to grow the employer host pool.”

“The employment offer rate is proof in the value that military spouses bring to an organization, and can be a key recruiting tool for employers across industries,” Fulce said.

Employers can find information here.

The pool of employers hosting spouse fellows has nearly tripled over the last year, from 129 to 370. But the number of spouses who have completed applications has also tripled, going from 1,000 to over 3,000. Of those, 807 have been placed into fellowships.

The pilot is slated to continue through 2026, so officials encourage military spouses to continue to apply, Fulce said. MSCAP is open to spouses of currently serving members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force, to include active, reserve and National Guard components.

MSCAP was expanded earlier this year to include “skills-based” fellowships with more entry-level positions, and 68 spouses have been placed into those fellowships. Spouses are identified as candidates for skills-based fellowships based on their education and experience, Fulce said. When MSCAP began, it was open to “career-ready” spouses.

To date, 643 spouses have completed their traditional fellowships, and 560 of them, or 87%, received employment offers from their employer hosts, Fulce said. Of the 60 spouses who have completed skills-based fellowships, 40 have received employment offers. The average annual salary offered to the traditional fellows is $68,000, and for skills-based fellows, $48,000.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes, through a contract with DOD, pairs applicants with fellowships that match their location, work experience and other factors. The number of fellowships available depends on what employers offer.

DOD pays spouse fellows’ salaries through the Chamber.

Applications are accepted throughout the year. Congress has appropriated $10 million for the MSCAP program to date, with the vast majority of funding going to the compensation for spouse fellows, Fulce said.

Spouses are in fellowships across multiple industries, such as information technology, project management, administration, human resources, and many other sectors, Fulce said. While 60% of the fellowship opportunities have been for remote work, spouses shouldn’t count on just remote work, she said. Spouses are participating in the program from more than 27 states.

Bautista is associate director of partnerships for ZeroMils, a social impact consulting firm, where she does strategic planning for fundraising for nonprofits, among other things.

She had been out of the work force for about two years when she started her fellowship, taking some time to adjust after her first permanent change of station move as a spouse, and to finish her master’s degree. As she was finishing, she began looking for remote positions in the nonprofit world. Over the course of four or five months, she said, “I had a couple of interviews throughout the process, but nothing really stuck.”

Then her husband, a Navy corpsman, read about the launch of the career accelerator program. Once she applied in February or March, 2023, she said, “The process was pretty quick.”

When ZeroMils hired Bautista, eight weeks into her fellowship, they paid her a signing bonus. It amounted to the difference between what she was being paid by DOD during the fellowship and what she could have been making at full salary during that time, said ZeroMils co-founder and CEO Kevin Schmiegel.

“She’s been with us ever since,” he said. The small but growing company has hired two spouses under the program, and they’re looking at hiring a third. Hiring military spouses “is not about what’s the right thing to do. Honestly this is so right for your business,” Schmiegel said.

One of the biggest benefits of the program was the networking opportunities it offers, Bautista said.

“I took that for granted,” she said. “I undervalued connections and networking in this space, and realized really quickly while I was going through the fellowship that that was going to be key, not just for my current fellowship and my potential employment with ZeroMils, but in the future.”

She said she appreciated getting to know other spouse fellows, and hearing about their experiences.

“Having all those connections and realizing we’re all in this together, and we’re probably in this together for a long time, is super valuable,” Bautista said.

“I’m still connected with them.”

Austin visited Maxwell Elementary Middle School last week along with first lady Jill Biden to highlight the launch of universal pre-kindergarten classes available to all 4-year-olds at 80 installations with elementary schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity.

“We heard loud and clear that families juggling work and raising kids need affordable child care and quality early childhood education,” Austin said, speaking to airmen, their families and school staff.

Austin highlighted the pre-kindergarten launch as one of the Defense Department’s efforts to make life easier for troops and their families.

DOD also announced seven new initiatives, including another effort to increase access to quality child care, with a $33.5 million budget request specifically for the child care workforce, to improve recruitment, retention and the work environments in DOD’s child development program. Like many civilian child care programs, the military has faced shortages of child care workers for years.

About 4,000 four-year-olds attend pre-K classes at the 80 schools where it’s being offered. Officials anticipate about 6,000 students will attend once the program is rolled out to all 90 elementary schools. Enrollment in the program is optional.

The remaining 10 elementary schools in the DODEA system will get pre-K over the next several years, pending construction and renovation.

The Department of Defense Education Activity, which manages schools on U.S. military bases around the world, launched its universal pre-K program in 2023 with a cohort of 65 4-year-olds at one school — M.C. Perry Primary School at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.

US military to expand universal pre-K at dozens more bases this fall

It was a success, said Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, who became director of the defense school system June 1.

“The families there were so grateful and so excited, and just saw their children flourishing in the program,” Narvaez told Military Times in a recent interview. “That was a great indicator about how important this is. And for military commanders, they’ve asked us for nearly a decade, and told us how important this is for readiness. They’re so appreciative. "

Narvaez said universal pre-K is her top priority this school year.

The startup costs for universal pre-K this year are about $65 million, and total annual expenditures, including teachers’ salaries, are expected to be about $45 million, said DODEA spokesman Will Griffin.

Officials were able to accelerate the timeline for bringing pre-kindergarten to the schools this year because of the determination of local school officials. In 2023, defense school officials said they expected the program would be phased in gradually over a five year period. They were initially slated to start universal pre-kindergarten this year in 47 schools.

But school leaders wanted the programs to come to their schools sooner, and worked to make it happen.

“They did that on their own because they know how important this initiative is,” Narvaez said. “People were so excited and realized how important this was, that they walked their buildings, they looked to see if they had viable space, they worked with military commanders to find the space to do it… They looked in every nook and cranny to see if there’s appropriate space.”

The student/teacher ratio for pre-K is 18 to 1. Every pre-K classroom has a full-time, certified early childhood educator and a full-time educational aide.

Any child who will be age 4 on or before Sept. 1 of a coming school year may enroll.

Parents can register through the DODEA Student Information System, but there’s no registration deadline because military families move throughout the year. Parents can visit dodea.edu/upk for more information and to enroll their child.

The Defense Department operates about 160 schools around the world, with nearly 70,000 students. The vast majority of military children attend schools outside the gate.

Universal pre-kindergarten programs are a “defining issue” for the United States, first lady Biden told told an audience of service members at Maxwell AFB.

“What’s happening at Maxwell is part of the blueprint for making quality preschool available to every three- and four-year-old in America,” she said.

Service members will have the option to open health care flexible spending accounts for the first time during a special enrollment period in March 2025. They can contribute up to $3,200 a year in pretax earnings toward eligible out-of-pocket health care expenses, with a minimum contribution of $100 annually. The Internal Revenue Service determines eligible expenses and contribution limits, the latter of which may vary by tax year.

The benefit is one of seven initiatives announced Friday by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to improve the quality of life for service members and their families.

In essence, it’s a savings account that can be used to pay for items not covered by health or dental insurance. Such accounts have been available for years to employees of many federal agencies and private companies.

More than 300 IRS-approved health care expenses qualify, including copays and deductibles; out-of-pocket costs for braces; glasses and contact lenses; prescription drugs; over-the-counter medicines; and wellness treatments such as acupuncture, massage and chiropractic care.

A wide variety of other items are also eligible, such as hand sanitizer and menstrual care products.

Service members choose their contribution amount, which is automatically withdrawn from their paycheck over the course of the year and deposited into their FSA. Because FSA contributions aren’t subject to payroll taxes, participants can save an average of 30% on eligible health care expenses, according to the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program, or FSAFEDS. FSAFEDS, which will administer the program, offers a calculator to help determine potential annual savings.

FSAFEDS also administers DOD’s dependent care flexible spending account benefit, which became available to service members in 2024.

Pentagon to unveil new programs to boost quality of life for troops

Service members must submit receipts or other documentation with their claim form.

Once the enrollment period begins, service members can enroll online at fsafeds.gov. Service members must use and claim their FSA funds by the end of the plan year on Dec. 31. Service members can carry over up to $640 of unused funds into the next year if they reenroll.

Otherwise, it’s use or lose: Service members will lose any funds that aren’t used during the plan year.

If both spouses are eligible for a health care FSA, each earner can maintain a separate account, and, combined, can contribute between $200 and $6,400 total per year.

The Defense Department offers free assistance to service members deciding whether to use this benefit, through appointments with a personal finance or tax counselor via DOD’s Office of Financial Readiness and Military OneSource. More information, including financial and tax impacts, will be available on the DOD’s financial readiness site at a later date.

Meanwhile, troops can start gathering receipts and information about their out-of-pocket health expenses now to help decide whether to open a health care FSA in March and how much to contribute.

Effective Oct. 1, officials will expand eligibility for the My Career Advancement Account, or MyCAA, program to include spouses of service members in pay grades E-7, E-8, E-9 and W-3. That will make the benefit available to spouses of active duty members in the grades of E-1 to E-9, W-1 to W-3, and O-1 to O-3.

The expansion of the MyCAA program is part of a bevy of new initiatives Austin announced during his trip to Maxwell Air Force, Alabama.

Spouses can use the tuition assistance to pursue occupational licenses, certifications or associate degrees needed for employment. The program is open to those in any career field or occupation. Spouses may also use their MyCAA scholarship at an approved institution to help with the costs of national tests for course credits required for a degree approved under the MyCAA program. MyCAA doesn’t pay for course work in pursuit of a bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degree.

Those eligible to register and apply for the scholarship include military spouses of active duty service members and spouses of National Guard and Reserve members on Title 10 orders.

Pentagon to unveil new programs to boost quality of life for troops

As before, there’s an annual fiscal year cap of $2,000 per spouse for the assistance and it’s a one-time benefit for spouses. The financial assistance is also limited to the amount of funding DOD has available.

In its 15 years of existence, the MyCAA program has gone through various changes. When it was first offered in 2009, it paid up to $6,000 in assistance to spouses of service members in all ranks, with no limits on the types of education or fields.

It was so popular and so many spouses applied that DOD had to abruptly shut it down in 2010 when funding was depleted. When DOD officials restarted the program later in 2010, they lowered the dollar limit of assistance, and limited the eligibility to spouses of those in junior ranks of officer and enlisted. Gradually officials have expanded that eligibility pool.

Rand researchers have found that MyCAA has had a positive impact on spouses’ ability to find employment with higher pay.

Officials said DOD will track the use of the benefit and the course completion rate of the expanded population to decide whether to expand it to more spouses in the future.

Though the military spouse unemployment rate has stubbornly remained over 20% for more than a decade, new resources designed to help are added every year. Here are some examples of this year’s efforts.

Overseas remote work: A new agreement between the Pentagon and State Department eases some restrictions for federally employed military spouses who want to continue their careers when moving overseas.

The arrangement strengthens the Domestic Employees Teleworking Overseas program for military spouses, with DOD and State Department officials working to help federally employed spouses work remotely where their spouse is stationed.

Paid fellowships: Defense officials this year opened the Pentagon’s paid fellowship pilot program to more spouses by including entry-level jobs. DOD pays the salary of military spouses placed in 12-week fellowships with public and private sector employers.

The Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot — now in year two of a three-year test — provides early career opportunities for younger spouses, in addition to “career-ready” fellowships for spouses with more education and experience.

Spouses of active-duty, reserve and National Guard troops can apply for a 12-week fellowship. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program pairs applicants with available fellowships.

Business costs reimbursement: Military spouses can now be reimbursed for up to $1,000 for certain business costs when moving. Such moves pose difficulties for business-owning spouses, who may take revenue hits or shutter altogether while navigating new regulations.

The military will reimburse at least some costs associated with moving, business equipment removal, new equipment, information technology, business permits, registration and inspections.

More connections to jobs, educational opportunities

Other long-standing programs continue to help military spouses with education and careers. More than 850 employers have worked with the Military Spouse Employer Partnership program since 2011, with more than 340,000 military spouses hired.

Through the MSEP site, spouses can search jobs posted by corporations, government agencies, nonprofits and universities, among others. Each organization is vetted to ensure they recruit, hire, promote and retain military spouses.

In partnership with that program, Hiring Our Heroes and the Blue Star Families’ Do Your Part campaign launched the 4 + 1 Commitment in December 2023 to tackle spouse unemployment. Spouse-friendly employment commitments — in addition to job transferability — include remote or telework options, flexible schedules and paid leave for PCS moves.

The Pentagon’s My Career Advancement Account Scholarship program provides eligible military spouses with up to $4,000 toward a license, certification or associate degree necessary to employment, with assistance capped at $2,000 per fiscal year.

Generally, eligible spouses are those married to active-duty troops ranked E-1 to E-6, W-1 to W-2 and O-1 to O-3.

Finally, DOD’s Spouse Education and Career Opportunities program, the umbrella for spouse employment resources, offers free one-on-one career coaching on licensure requirements, employer connections, school programs and training options.

Spouses should check with their local family center for more employment resources.

All stateside commissaries, as well as those in Alaska and Hawaii, will hold these sales over a two- or three day period in September, generally over a weekend.

Two commissaries will hold their sales at the end of August: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii commissary Aug. 30 to Sept. 2; and Pittsburgh Area, Penn. Commissary, Aug. 29 to Aug. 31.

Customers should check the Defense Commissary Agency’s sidewalk sales page for specific sales dates for their local military grocery store, and check back with their store’s web site or store manager for any schedule changes.

These sales are traditionally held twice a year, in the spring and fall. While they are specific to U.S. stores, customers overseas should check with their commissaries to see if there might be some special deals.

More food options, better access coming for commissary customers

The sales come at a time when the big military moving season is over, and customers can stock up on items after their move. And with rising grocery prices, many customers look to make the most of their grocery dollars. Commissary officials typically hold the sales just outside their stores, weather permitting.

Discounts vary. Customers can expect to see additional savings of anywhere from 18% to 32% with local coupons and vendors’ sales price reductions, according to Tressa Smith, a spokeswoman for the Defense Commissary Agency.

That’s over and above the average 25% savings that customers see throughout the year, “saving a family of four up to $4,000 a year if they routinely use their benefit,” according to commissary director John Hall.

Commissaries will offer a variety of different products, from baby products to snacks, paper towels and canned goods.

And don’t forget your reusable bags, especially at the sidewalk sales in Hawaii, California and Washington, which have eliminated plastic and paper single-use bags.

Those eligible for the commissary shopping benefit include active duty, Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, Medal of Honor recipients, and their authorized family members.

Veterans with any Department of Veterans Affairs-documented, service-connected disability rating are now eligible for commissary shopping, as well as Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war, and individuals who have been approved and designated as the primary caregivers of eligible veterans by the VA.

A third of those surveyed indicated they were dissatisfied with the Exceptional Family Member Program, or EFMP.

At the same time, Navy and Marine Corps members reported more positive EFMP experiences than their Army brethren, according to the Pentagon.

EFMP is a mandatory enrollment program for service members who have a family member with any physical, emotional, developmental or intellectual disorder that requires special treatment, therapy, education, training or counseling. The EFMP works with both military and civilian agencies to provide a variety of support in housing, health care, educational or other personnel services.

This first-ever survey of service members enrolled in the program took place between November 2022 and March 2023, before the Pentagon made changes to beef up and standardize the program across the services, and before the Army made changes to improve their version of the program.

DoD aims for more consistent support for special needs families

For years, military families with special needs have detailed their problems with the availability and quality of medical care and special education. Following a February 2020 congressional hearing, lawmakers mandated EFMP standardization and improvements in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

But while DOD officials tout aspects of the survey results as indicative that the program is helping those who need it, some program families have questioned the validity of the survey results.

The survey analysis points to program areas that need improvement, as well as successes, according to Tomeshia Barnes, associate director of the Office of Special Needs in DOD’s Office of Military Family Readiness Policy.

One big area to tackle is the support families get when moving from one installation to another, and connecting them to critical services at the new location, Barnes told Military Times.

“Enhancing and improving the program is a priority for the department,” Barnes said, adding that “the voice of the families really matters” and the survey is one tool that helps DOD get data from families “and hear their voice and their lived experience with each component of the program.”

Defense officials sent surveys to all of the 100,000 service members enrolled in EFMP, and 13%, or 12,620, responded across the force.

The results appear to debunk a common misconception that enrolling in the EFMP would have a negative impact on the service member’s career, Barnes said, and it indicates that the majority of responding service members are satisfied with the support they’re getting at the local level from EFMP staff.

Families questioning the results

Some military families and others have questioned the results of this survey for a variety of reasons, including concerns about the way it was conducted — surveying service members, but not the spouses who generally shoulder most of the responsibility of coordinating services for the special needs family member.

“Who’s more knowledgeable, the service member of the spouse? We know it’s the spouse,” said Michelle Norman, executive director of Partners in Promise, a nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission is to protect the rights of military children in special education and disability communities. “It would have been smarter to send it to spouses of service members.”

“I feel they’ve missed a big opportunity to collect key data to improve the EFMP program,” she said.

Norman added that assessing the full report is difficult, as the publicly released 66-page analysis didn’t provide full data on the 79 questions asked of service members.

EFMP families experience the stresses of military life at a much higher level, Norman said.

“We were hopeful this would spotlight how all these quality of life issues impact our lives,” she said. “The goal for EFMP enrollment is to be a value add, not a burden. I don’t think we’re there yet. This survey kind of proves that point.”

About 46% of the service members who responded have a spouse enrolled in EFMP, but those spouses weren’t surveyed about their satisfaction with the program and its services. About 70% of respondents said their child is enrolled in EFMP.

There is an overlap, with some service members having both a child and spouse in EFMP, but defense officials haven’t delved into how many families have multiple dependents in EFMP.

That’s one of the things officials are looking at, Barnes said, as they progress in their oversight and data collection – assessing those with multiple dependents with an educational or medical need, “knowing that there could be heightened stress with that as well.”

Norman noted that there is satisfaction in some areas, such as in respite care, where 74% of those who used it were satisfied. However, only 8% of the service members who responded had used respite care services from their military family support program within the previous two years. Meanwhile, 35% of the service members responded that they were aware of the program, but didn’t use it.

Norman said when the survey was first launched, her organization heard that military families weren’t confident about the survey design and the way the questions were being asked.

“This is not surprising since DOD didn’t engage with family stakeholders back then to ask for their inputs,” she said. “We see that trend changing for the better.”

The vast majority of service members who responded — 83% — said their family members’ needs were met at least to some extent in the previous 12 months.

But there’s work to be done to provide better support when families are making the permanent change of station move from one installation to the next, DOD’s Barnes said. More than half of the service members who responded said the EFMP support hadn’t made their PCS move any smoother at all, a key element of the program.

Moves can be stressful enough for military families, but they can be more so for special needs families who are trying to make sure they’ll have the needed services and programs at their new location.

Among other things, EFMP staff can work to improve the “warm handoff” to the EFMP staff at the new location, to help families make a smoother transition, Barnes said. That requirement is part of the 2023 DOD instructions.

Of the service members who PCS’d since being enrolled in EFMP, 54% indicated the staff at their military treatment facility, or MTF, hadn’t helped them at all with coordinating medical services at their new location.

A higher percentage of soldiers — 63% —said their MTF staff hadn’t helped them at all. While military medical isn’t under the purview of EFMP, those officials do work with and coordinate with them and other military and civilian agencies.

These special needs are considered when deciding a service member’s next duty station, to ensure the family’s needs can be met there. The goal is to keep families together, and according to the survey results, more than three-fourths of service members said they had never made a PCS move without their family because of EFMP needs; 20% said they had done so one or two times.

Career perceptions

There has long been a perception among some service members that being enrolled in EFMP will have a negative impact on their career.

Officials were struck by survey results showing a larger percentage of respondents said EFMP has neither a negative nor a positive impact on their career, Barnes said.

There has been a perception that the program would restrict troops’ ability to move to certain duty stations, limiting career progression.

Lawmakers vow to fix DoD special needs program for military families

“EFMP enrollment … is not something that will absolutely have a negative impact on the career, and that is something that we think is very important,” she said.

Of those who responded, 47% said EFMP enrollment had neither a positive nor negative impact on their job/career options in the military; 22% said it had a positive effect, and 31%, a negative effect.

And 59% said the enrollment had neither a positive nor negative impact on their military career so far, with 20% saying the effect was positive, and another 20%, negative.

Soldiers’ experiences less positive

The survey was conducted before the Defense Department issued new rules in 2023 to provide more consistency to the program, which is administered by each of the services.

And the survey results brought into focus the need for that standardization, showing the differences in satisfaction between the service branches. The analysis showed soldiers’ experiences with EFMP were less positive than the other services.

For example:

- Of soldiers who had to relocate because of a PCS move since being enrolled in EFMP, 60% said EFMP support hadn’t made their move smoother at all; compared to 51% of participants overall.

- While 83% of service members said their family member’s needs had been met to some extent in the previous 12 months, 17% said their needs weren’t met at all. For soldiers, 21% stated their needs hadn’t been met at all.

- A quarter of service members overall said EFMP enrollment will have a positive impact on their decision to stay on active duty; 26% reported a negative impact, and 49% said it won’t have an impact. A higher percentage of sailors (35%) and Marines (32%) reported a positive impact, while more soldiers (29%) and airmen (30%) reported a negative impact.

- Thirty-seven percent said that based on the EFMP services they received, their families favor staying on active duty, while 25% favor leaving. A higher percentage of sailors (44%) and Marines (42%) favor staying. A higher percentage of soldiers, 28%, favor leaving.

- While half of service members responded that their leadership had always or often provided support to help with EFMP needs in the previous 12 months, 26% percent said they never had gotten support. For soldiers, the percentage of those who never had gotten support was highest, at 35%.

Earlier this year, the Army announced they are creating a central office to oversee implementation of the EFMP, coordinating health care services, PCS order processing and family support services, as well as special education services.

In 2022, the Army launched a new digital platform called the Enterprise Exceptional Family Member Program system, to automate the enrollment process and make it easier for families to access support services and resources, according to Army spokeswoman Heather J. Hagan.

Army creates office to better support families with special needs

The Army has also expanded their program of EFMP family support system navigators on their installations, providing military and community resources, EFMP respite care services and other support.

In putting together the new DOD rules for standardization, DOD’s Barnes said, officials looked at best practices that were being used to support military families. Going forward, officials have mechanisms in place to get feedback “so we can actually compare the results and see how we’re progressing,” she said.

While they intend to do the surveys on a regular basis, the timeline isn’t available, she said.

Meanwhile, officials are collecting data on the program, as a result of the new DOD rules, and will receive their first data report on the performance in the fall, to help them identify whether the standardization efforts are being met, Barnes said.

Eight airlines, including German airline Lufthansa, had announced they would no longer allow dogs to fly in the cabin or cargo hold on the same flight as their owner due to new dog importing rules issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new CDC rules take effect Aug. 1, and many military families were left scrambling to find ways to transport their dogs, especially during the busy moving season. For some, this means using a pet shipper, a more expensive option than transporting the dog on the owner’s flight.

The policy was implemented to protect the U.S. from the reintroduction of dog rabies, which has been eliminated in the country since 2007. There are over 100 countries where the issue of dog rabies is not controlled, according to the CDC.

In an email response to Military Times on July 26, Lufthansa spokesman Joerg Waber noted that “existing bookings for the transportation of dogs remain unaffected, provided that all CDC requirements are met.”

That includes bookings previously made for flights scheduled for August or later. Many military families overseas book flights months in advance.

New Lufthansa bookings for dogs on or after Aug. 1 “will only be accepted for the airports in Washington, D.C., New York-JFK, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles and Philadelphia that provide the necessary infrastructure and meet criteria required by the CDC in case the animal is denied direct entry to the U.S.,” Waber added.

That infrastructure includes, for example, placement in a CDC-approved animal care facility, Waber said. If the CDC rules are not followed, the dog will not be allowed to enter the U.S.

The transportation of assistance dogs — and dogs separately shipped as air freight on their own tickets — to other U.S. airports, is still possible, as long as the owners meet the new CDC requirements, Waber said.

“They’re moving in the right direction,” said Liz Hensel, CEO of Leave No Paws Behind USA. But the Lufthansa website is not clear about what families should do, leaving travelers confused, she added.

“Families are under the impression they don’t have support,” said Hensel, a veteran who was named the 2024 Armed Forces Insurance Marine Corps Spouse of the Year.

As of July 26, Lufthansa had posted new information on its website, noting that already confirmed bookings will be honored after August 1, 2024, provided all CDC requirements can be fulfilled.

They’ll offer additional options if a dog’s booking was confirmed before July 3, 2024, including rebooking to a flight before Aug. 1; rebooking without the dog; and a refund of the ticket.

On July 22, the CDC loosened their new rules for importing dogs, announcing that through April 30, 2025, it won’t require veterinary documents for dogs that have spent the previous six months in rabies-free or low-risk countries. The only form needed is the CDC Dog Import Form, which can be completed online by the traveler or importer.

In addition to the dog import form, dogs coming from low-risk or no-risk countries for rabies:

• must appear healthy upon arrival.

• must be at least 6 months old at time of entry or return to the U.S.

• must have a identifying microchip that can be detected with a universal scanner.

Two versions of the CDC Dog Import Form exist: one for dogs coming from no-to-low risk countries for dog rabies, and the other for dogs coming from high-risk countries for dog rabies. Dogs coming from high-risk countries have more requirements, which can be assessed here.

How is this affecting Patriot Express flights?

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., sent a letter on July 25 to the commander of Air Mobility Command, asking how the new CDC rules are impacting military families bringing dogs onto military-contracted Patriot Express flights. Patriot Express is a contracted commercial charter mission providing support for official duty travelers and their families to and from overseas areas.

“I am disturbed that the CDC’s rule … has already caused unnecessary confusion, with some airlines preventing dogs from onboarding with their families on international flights back home,” he wrote to Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan.

Waltz asked what assurances have been provided to service members and their families that AMC’s contracted airlines won’t issue blanket bans on dogs from onboarding; and what outreach AMC has done with the CDC for clarification and application of the rule to mitigate the negative impact on military families.

“At this time, the policy is so new [that] it is too soon to say how it is affecting Patriot Express flights enough to approach carriers about changes to the contract,” Scott Ross, spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command, told Military Times.

Military families overseas may get relief in dog travel rule fixes

The Patriot Express contract has a set number of pet spaces per flight, and those allocations can’t change without mutual agreement between the airline and the government.

Ross said current Patriot Express-contracted commercial airline carriers have requested — and some have received — their 90-day waivers from the CDC, which allows them to transport dogs without a document known as an air waybill.

Airlines can request waivers from CDC

New CDC rules require an air waybill for each dog beginning Aug. 1. Until now, air waybills have only been required if the dog was traveling separately as manifest cargo — essentially, on its own ticket on a separate flight from its owner.

The changes announced July 22 by CDC allow airlines to request a 90-day waiver if they are unable to create an air waybill for each dog transported to the U.S. This allows airlines to transport the dog in the cabin or as excess baggage in the cargo hold without an air waybill.

Lufthansa spokesman Joerg Waber confirmed that the airline has applied for and received the 90-day waiver.

None of the airlines are currently equipped for the process of receiving dogs as excess baggage or in the cabin with their own air waybill.

The passenger terminal, where pets arrive as excess baggage or to travel in the cabin, is not connected to the cargo facilities where air waybills are required for pets traveling as manifest cargo. So, airlines are not presently set up to clear a pet coming into the passenger terminal, according to Angela Passman, owner and president of World Pet Travel.

Those 90-day waivers, according to CDC, are provided within one business day of being requested by the airlines. The airlines can also request a waiver that can last nine months, which involves a longer approval process.

Airlines continue to be able to transport dogs if the dog is traveling separately as manifest cargo — on its own ticket, and as in the past, creating an air waybill for the dog.

Without being able to transport dogs on the same flights, many owners have no other option except to hire pet shipping companies accustomed to meeting rigid requirements.

That route, however, can cost anywhere from approximately $2,500 to over $4,000, depending on the dog. Hensel noted that bringing the dog on the same flight as the owner generally costs around $400.

Families are posting on Facebook about departure dates happening as soon as the first weeks of August — but now transportation is uncertain for their dogs due to new U.S. regulations and some airlines refusing to allow dogs to travel back to the states.

“Why do things always have to be so complicated for military families to bring our pet family members with us when we move?” one military wife asked on the platform. “As if moving far from home and family every few years isn’t stressful enough.”

The issue stems from new requirements from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that take effect Aug. 1, aimed at preventing the introduction of dog rabies into the United States. While dog rabies was eliminated in the United States in 2007, there are over 100 countries where dog rabies isn’t controlled, according to the CDC.

The new regulations will be cumbersome for some military families, and there’s some confusion. But the more immediate problem is that eight airlines will stop allowing dogs to travel back to the states with their families either in the cabin or as excess baggage in the cargo hold.

German airline Lufthansa is the most recent airline to make the announcement. “Due to new restrictions imposed by the U.S. authorities it is no longer possible to import dogs into the USA after 1 August 2024 until further notice,” the Lufthansa website states.

The abrupt policy changes have some military advocates baffled by it all.

“I 100% agree we have to protect the population from rabies,” said Liz Hensel, CEO of Leave No Paws Behind USA. “But there must be a better way than to leave hundreds of military families stranded in a situation where they have no idea what to do with their dogs,” she said.

There are more than 100,000 service members stationed in Europe alone, she noted. It remains to be seen how this will play out around the world.

“Our household pets really help with mental health not only for the men and women serving, but for the family dynamic as a whole,” said Hensel, a veteran who is also the 2024 Armed Forces Insurance Marine Corps Spouse of the Year.

The decision by Lufthansa is “heartbreaking,” as the airline has been one of the most pet friendly airlines for military families, Hensel said.

The new CDC requirements standardize the process for importing dogs, including standard requirements for the minimum age of imported dogs, microchips, the CDC Dog Import Form, and other documentation. This will “streamline the importation process and allow for safer and more efficient entry of dogs into the United States,” according to the CDC.

The rules require some documentation that generally only commercial pet shippers were required to do, and which could require extra steps such as translating the CDC form into the local language for host-nation veterinarians and their supervisors, Hensel said.

Hensel is advocating for urgent policy adjustments by the CDC, including exemptions for military families in recognition of their unique circumstances; increased quarantine and vaccination facilities; airline partnerships; and streamlined import processes with clear and consistent guidelines.

Lawmakers have stepped in to urge the CDC director to allow an 18-month delay in implementation of the blanket requirements, because the rules affect low-risk dogs personally owned by various types of individuals.

A July 8 letter from Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., has been signed by six additional members of Congress. Among other things, the dog import form has caused concern because of its delayed public availability and potential concern among dog owners, Langworthy wrote.

Information was not immediately available from the CDC about whether any solutions are being considered for military families.

Hensel speculates that the airlines are backing away from transporting the pets with their families on the same flight because they don’t want to be held liable.

According to the CDC website, if their rules aren’t followed, the dog won’t be allowed to enter the U.S. “If denied entry, your dog will be sent back to the last country of departure at your expense. Country of departure is where the last trip originated—not where the dog was born or where it lives,” officials state.

Many military families will now be forced to use pet shippers, which can continue to ship on the airlines, Hensel said.

But the cost will be a great hardship for many families.

“What has been costing around $400 will now be over $2,000,” she said, noting that the cost to ship a dog overseas through a pet shipper could be anywhere from $2,500 to over $4,000, depending on the dog, location and other factors.

Hensel worked for four years to advocate for a law to allow service members to be reimbursed for up to $2,000 of pet transportation expenses to or from overseas during a PCS move, and up to $550 for pet transportation in a move within the continental U.S. DOD implemented that benefit Jan. 1.

“And now this?” she said.

Military issues new details on reimbursing pet travel costs

Limited spaces are available to transport dogs on military-contracted Patriot Express flights on PCS moves, although U.S. Transportation Command increased the cabin flight spaces from 10 to 20, in 2021.

TRANSCOM officials are aware of the issue, said spokesman Nate Allen.

“This is where the conversations between passengers and their local transportation management offices are crucial,” he said. “While there is no immediate plan to increase pet spaces, if presented with a significant increase in requirements, we have and will engage with commercial partners to increase capacity where possible.”

Passengers traveling on the Patriot Express flights will also be required to comply with the CDC’s new import requirements, Allen said.

One family posted that they are being relocated stateside for a humanitarian reassignment, which is already stressful.

“I literally don’t know how I’m going to get our dog home with us,” the military wife posted. “This is to the point I’m in tears. This is just another stressor military families don’t need.”

The Government Accountability Office concluded that around 8 in 10 of those listings could be incorrect after posing as Tricare beneficiaries on hundreds of covert calls to providers. The watchdog agency encountered a host of problems with the directories, from faulty contact information to incorrectly showing whether a provider is taking new Tricare patients.

Finding behavioral health care services to treat mental health conditions and substance use disorders is already difficult for military beneficiaries amid a nationwide shortage of therapists and psychiatrists. Flawed directories compound the unique challenges facing military families, who rely on the listings to find care and have long complained about directory shortcomings. Frequent moves exacerbate the problem.

To help remedy the issue, GAO recommended that the Defense Health Agency specifically monitor the accuracy of behavioral health listings in the Tricare network, in addition to the agency’s broader checks of the directory overall.

“Access to behavioral health care is paramount for Tricare beneficiaries, as demand for these services [has] increased among active duty service members and their families,” auditors said in the report.

More than 9 million Tricare beneficiaries receive care at military facilities, or through networks of civilian providers in two regions, Tricare East and West. Contractors in each region manage online provider directories spanning more than 1 million listings of health providers and specialists; the contractors are required to ensure listings are accurate and audit a portion of them each month. Defense health officials monitor the findings of those audits.

Congress mandated a GAO investigation in 2022 amid ongoing complaints about the quality of the directories. GAO dug into a fraction of the nearly 130,000 listings for behavioral health providers — with lackluster results.

The watchdog called a random sample of 342 behavioral health providers in the Tricare directories in July and August 2023, the report said. That was enough to estimate that 85% of nearly 61,000 such listings in Tricare East were inaccurate, and 79% of nearly 68,000 listings in Tricare West had errors, GAO said.

A listing was considered accurate if each of the elements required by the Pentagon were correct: a provider’s name, gender, specialty, sub-specialty, address, phone number and fax number. Auditors estimated that about 19% of all behavioral health listings in Tricare East, and about 22% of those listings in Tricare West, show a disconnected phone number or outdated address.

The study also considered whether providers were accepting new Tricare patients. Of the listings GAO contacted that advertised accepting new Tricare patients, the watchdog found that only a small percentage actually were — 34% of those in Tricare East; and 19% of those in Tricare West.

DHA and Tricare’s contractors have tried to encourage health providers to accept more Tricare patients. But providers can be reluctant to accept Tricare because they want to avoid the system’s low reimbursement rates for services provided, a lack of awareness of the Tricare system, a preference for private insurance or avoiding insurance altogether, or burnout.

As part of its research, GAO also met with organizations representing Tricare beneficiaries and behavioral health providers, and interviewed defense officials and representatives from the two regional contractors.

Health Net Federal Services, the Tricare West contractor, argues that more than 8 in 10 of its listings across all providers are accurate.

The contractor told Military Times it “proactively works with our network providers to obtain timely, accurate directory data.”

“HNFS conducts monthly audits on a randomly selected, statistically valid sample of provider records, including those for behavioral health providers,” the company said.

Health Net said GAO hasn’t provided details of which listings it audited so the company can try to replicate its findings.

Officials with Humana Government Business, the Tricare East contractor, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Karen Ruedisueli, director of government relations for health affairs for the Military Officers Association of America, said the advocacy group is “not at all surprised” by the findings.

“They validate beneficiary complaints we have heard for years about ‘ghost directories,’” Ruedisueli told Military Times. “Military families face so many challenges. Those reaching out for help should not have to slog through dozens of inaccurate listings to find a mental health provider.”

A recent survey conducted by the Military Family Advisory Network found that about 28% of actively serving families who sought out mental health care reported obstacles in getting appointments.

That comes amid a spike in the need for those services. Service members experienced a fourfold increase in mental health diagnoses from 2005 to 2021, according to the Defense Health Board, an independent committee that advises the defense secretary. Military children saw a sixfold increase in mental health diagnoses.

Struggles to keep provider directories accurate are not unique to the military health system; state and federal laws and regulations designed to curb the problem have fallen short of that goal.

The Defense Health Agency, which manages Tricare, said multiple factors likely cause listing inaccuracies. Behavioral health providers are more mobile than others, the agency said, and may lack the administrative staff to update those details. DHA added that provider availability can change daily, and that some don’t post phone numbers because they prefer patients contact them by email or text.

Responding to GAO’s findings, DHA said it would look into how feasible it may be to require Tricare contractors to audit behavioral health listings as well as the directories at large, and agreed to address what could be causing possibly significant differences in the accuracies of behavioral health listings compared to Tricare providers overall.

While GAO said the contractors contend their overall accuracy rate hovers around 82%, auditors estimate just 15% of behavioral health listings are right in Tricare East and 21% in Tricare West.

Defense Health Agency officials pushed back on the report’s recommendation to ensure those rates are consistent, pointing to differences in the providers’ resources and how they conduct business.

Defense officials also disagreed with the GAO recommendation that they periodically monitor the accuracy of the behavioral health provider listings in relation to the overall directory.

Tricare’s current contracts, as well as a new pair set to take effect in January, don’t require the network managers to audit individual specialties. Doing so would require more money, DHA Director Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland wrote in a response to GAO.

The agency itself also lacks the manpower to sufficiently pore over provider directories, Crosland said.

GAO maintains that the Pentagon should check Tricare’s behavioral health provider listings “to help ensure that beneficiaries have the best information available when they need to access behavioral health care.”

Have you had to cut back on the amount of groceries you’re buying? Are you giving up some previous indulgences or buying cheaper cuts of meat — or no meat? Scouring for coupons or doing more comparison shopping? Shopping at the commissary more often? Driving less or changing vacation plans? Diving into savings? Charging necessities on credit cards?

'Feeding our paycheck to the pump': Troops, families deal with inflation

If you’re making a permanent change of station move this summer, has inflation impacted that move, and in what way?

Have any steps taken by Congress and DOD over the last several years helped you financially, such as pay increases, housing allowance increases or the new Basic Needs Allowance?

Tell us about your experience, and include some of your advice and tips that we can share with others in the military community. Include your rank, branch of service, location and how many people are in your family.

Email your answers to reporter Karen Jowers at kjowers@militarytimes.com. Your response may be published online or in print. Let us know if it’s OK to use your name. Thanks for your help.

The lawmakers are concerned that the Defense Health Agency has decided to retain Express Scripts as the sole pharmacy benefit manager for Tricare, the military insurance system serving 9.6 million troops, retirees and their families.

Military pharmacies resume regular operations after cyberattack

In a letter sent Wednesday to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Lester Martinez-Lopez and DHA director Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland, the lawmakers questioned whether Express Scripts may be using anticompetitive tactics to overcharge Tricare.

Express Scripts is the second-largest pharmacy benefit manager in the country. PBMs act as middlemen for pharmacies, drug companies and insurers and play a key role in negotiating drug prices between the various players, as well as helping to decide which medicines an insurer will cover.

Critics argue PBMs’ often secretive work has forced scores of Americans to overspend on medication or kept them from being able to access the medicine they need. PBM proponents argue they ultimately drive down costs in the medical system and ensure the prescription drug enterprise runs smoothly.

The letter, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., demands answers by July 2 from defense officials on how they monitor the Express Scripts contract, how robust the pharmacy network is, and whether DHA tracks Express Scripts’ denials for expensive specialty drugs requested by Tricare beneficiaries. Twenty additional members of Congress signed onto the letter.

At issue is the narrow set of companies through which troops and their families receive medicine under Tricare health plans.

Tricare members can obtain prescription drugs through two entities: Express Scripts, which handles nonspecialty medication, or Accredo, which handles specialty drugs for conditions like cancer and multiple sclerosis. Accredo has served as Tricare’s primary in-network specialty pharmacy since the beginning of 2023, though patients can buy specialty drugs through other pharmacies as well.

Both companies are Cigna subsidiaries. Lawmakers worry the arrangement makes Tricare customers vulnerable to higher drug prices, and may ultimately drive up the cost to taxpayers who cover government-provided health insurance.

“Because Cigna also owns Accredo, it can effectively keep much of its business in-house, using its [pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts] to steer patients to its own pharmacy while disadvantaging competitors,” the lawmakers wrote.

Lawmakers want to know whether DHA has compared the prices Express Scripts charges for specialty drugs through Accredo versus what it charges for the same drugs at independent pharmacies. They also ask how much Express Scripts charges for each of the 10 most frequently prescribed products purchased through Accredo, and how much it charges for the same prescriptions when they are purchased through independent pharmacies.

In a statement provided to Military Times, Express Scripts officials said Tricare beneficiaries aren’t required to fill the majority of specialty prescriptions through Accredo, “though many choose to because of the highly personalized support they receive from their pharmacists, nurses, clinicians, dietitians and social workers.”

Company officials said they provide Tricare beneficiaries “with high quality, affordable health care while achieving billions of dollars in savings for the government and taxpayers. Tricare beneficiaries have access to the full range of generic, brand, and specialty medications on the market today through our robust network of chain, independent, military, specialty and home delivery pharmacies.”

Tricare members have fewer independent and retail pharmacies to rely on than they did a few years ago. In 2022, 15,000 pharmacies left the Tricare network while refusing to accept the contract’s terms for reimbursement from Express Scripts. After public pressure, Express Scripts reopened its network, but fewer than 5,000 pharmacies rejoined.

“This exodus of independent and retail pharmacies can be catastrophic for Tricare beneficiaries, especially for those with complex medical conditions who are ill-served by mail-order pharmacies,” the lawmakers wrote.

There are currently more than 42,000 pharmacies, including nearly 12,000 independent pharmacies in the Tricare network. Ninety-eight percent of beneficiaries have a Tricare retail pharmacy within a 15-minute drive.

Lawmakers ask how the Defense Health Agency verifies that Express Scripts obeys patient access requirements, including that at least one in-network pharmacy is located within a 15-minute drive of 90% of Tricare beneficiaries.

They noted that the Defense Health Agency can revise the terms of the contract or leave the exclusive agreement with Express Scripts each year until the contract ends in December 2029.

A DHA spokesperson on Friday declined to comment on the letter: “It isn’t appropriate for us to comment on questions until we have responded formally to the members of Congress.”

The agency has previously told Military Times that the contract allows Express Scripts to use its own discretion in contracting with pharmacies to establish a competitively priced network that meets contract access standards, directly passing savings to the government.

A new report from a leading advocacy group argues it’s time to give the pace of those moves, known as permanent changes of station, a fresh look.

“We’re seeing PCS as being a big moment that puts people in a situation of vulnerability,” Shannon Razsadin, chief executive officer of the Military Family Advisory Network, told Military Times on Tuesday.

The group’s 2023 Military Family Support Programming Survey, released Wednesday, explored some of the perennial challenges that burden military families. The 109-page report questioned whether changing the frequent shuffle between bases — which military officials argue is necessary to meet operational requirements and fill empty jobs — could affect recurring issues related to financial stability, such as military spouse unemployment, and other concerns such as children’s education.

“Is there a capacity to expand telework to provide more stability?” the report asked. “There is an opportunity to explore the cost savings of less frequent moves, not just for military families, but also for taxpayers.”

The survey drilled into some of the second- and third-order effects of frequent moves, when people struggle with everything from the amount of time spent in temporary lodging to security deposits, extra rent and unreimbursed expenses.

“These things are adding up. When you move every two to three years, and layer on top of that potential gaps in employment, you have this ‘aha’ moment where it’s not surprising that people are having a hard time getting ahead,” Razsadin said.

More than half of the survey’s respondents made a PCS move in the previous two years, the advocacy group said. Those who did were more likely to report poor family well-being than those who hadn’t moved, at 25.7% and 20.3%, respectively, according to the survey.

About 4 in 10 respondents who PCSed in the past two years reported low or very low food security; around half reported it was “difficult or very difficult” to find a place to live.

The MFAN survey, conducted online from Oct. 2 to Dec. 10, 2023, sought to hear from current and former members of the military community. Of the 10,149 participants, 39% said they were active duty spouses, 19% were veterans, and 11% were active duty troops. Seventy-six percent of respondents identified themselves or their spouse as enlisted, whether active duty, retiree or veteran.

The survey isn’t a scientific poll because researchers did not verify the identity of respondents, or conduct a random sample, for instance. The 2023 report is the survey’s fifth iteration since it began in 2014.

Researchers measured family well-being using the Family Health Scale, a research tool of 10 questions that measure factors like relationships, health care, lifestyle, financial health and housing.

Other findings related to PCS moves include:

• Most respondents reported spending between $500 to $1,000 out of pocket on moving expenses that aren’t reimbursed by the military.
• 53% of active duty military family respondents say they are paying more than $251 out of pocket each month for rent/mortgage or utilities.
• 43% said the reimbursement process took one to two months after they moved.
• 29% reported staying in temporary lodging between 11 to 30 nights during their PCS move; another 21% reported staying in temporary lodging between 31 to 60 nights.
• 56% of respondents said their household goods were lost or damaged during their most recent move, including retirees and veterans. 70% filed a claim. “Respondents who filed a claim most commonly experienced a financial loss between $500 and $1,000 above the reimbursement for their claim,” according to the report.
• 46% of respondents said moving has the greatest impact on children and their education, social life, and adjustment to a new location. “It takes a great deal of work to support the children before, during and after a move. The ripple effect is large and long lasting,” said one active duty sailor who responded to the survey.
• 38% said that moving affects the entire family’s mental health and well-being, “oftentimes causing stress, sadness, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and even adjustment disorder,” according to the report.
• 30% cited the effects of PCS moves on military spouse employment; 36% of unemployed active duty spouses shared stories of challenges with frequent moves.
• 11% of respondents cited moving or PCS as a barrier to saving money.
• 30% of respondents said they had difficulty establishing mental health care in a new location.

“The journey of a military family like yours or mine comes with sacrifices,” said Christine Grady, wife of Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Christopher Grady, during an event Wednesday announcing the results of the survey. “It comes with great rewards.”

Overall, military family well-being has declined since the last MFAN survey in 2021. In the past two years, those reporting poor family well-being increased from 14% in 2021 to 26.5% in 2023. Those who described their well-being as “excellent” fell from 41.3% in 2021 to 27.9% in 2023.

Enlisted families with children — one of the largest groups in the survey — were less likely to report excellent well-being, at 20%.

Razsadin said one of the more disheartening results is the uptick in loneliness reported among military and veteran families, which rose by 5 percentage points to 59% in 2023.

“I found it surprising,” she said. “The last time we fielded the survey was in 2021, in the pandemic. We have to figure out how we can create meaningful connections with people.”

Among the bright spots in the findings, said Gabby L’Esperance, MFAN’s insights director, was the increase in usage of mental health support. Nearly 60% of respondents sought out mental health services in the previous two years, up from 46% in 2021.

Survey results showed that families with poor or moderate well-being were less likely to recommend military life to others, as were enlisted families, veteran families, respondents with children under 18, and those who joined military life in the last 10 years.

Nearly 58% of those surveyed in 2023 would recommend a military career, a 5-percentage-point drop since 2021. Those who recommend military life to others has fallen steadily since 2019, when it stood at 74.5%.

Many said they would recommend military life with a healthy dose of caution, or as short-term service instead of a career.

The advocacy group warned that failing families can have wider repercussions for retention and recruitment — and in turn, military readiness — than on those households alone.

“Ensuring families can thrive in service isn’t just the right thing to do,” the report said. “There are long-term consequences if they don’t.”

The sky is still dark as she gently buckles Isaiah into the car. Most days, it’s around 3 a.m. when they arrive at the 24-hour child development center here at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, where Isaiah will grab a few more hours of sleep while his mother heads in to work.

After they’re let inside, Solomon tucks Isaiah into his designated bed alongside his stuffed toy and unpacks his clothes for the day into a nearby cubby.

“Then I give him a kiss … go to the front desk, sign him in, and I’m off for the day,” Solomon said. “He does all his waking up at the center.”

The Little Creek-Fort Story facility is one of eight military child development centers that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to help troops whose odd hours and unpredictable schedules rule out the option of relying on traditional day cares. Seven are operated by the Navy; the Army has one.

Proponents argue the military services should build more of those facilities to support single parents, dual-military families and troops whose unique jobs can create unusual child care needs, particularly as families nationwide struggle to find reliable, affordable options for care. But the services say they have no plans to open more 24-hour centers, and are instead trying to grow the number of in-home child care options.

That leaves many U.S. service members without an around-the-clock option for child care, potentially adding stressors that can affect troops’ performance at work and spur them to consider more stable work in the private sector.

For Solomon and her husband, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Niko Solomon, workdays are rarely routine. But the 24-hour child development center at Little Creek-Fort Story offers the family peace of mind that their son is cared for while they turn to the matter of national defense.

“This 24/7 center has helped parents with that nontraditional work schedule,” Solomon said. “If it weren’t for this day care, we don’t know what we would do,” she said.

Inside a 24-hour child care center

About 100 military kids are enrolled at 24-hour child care centers on seven installations in four states: Naval Medical Center Portsmouth; Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads; JEB Little Creek-Fort Story; and Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia; Naval Base Coronado, California; Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; and Fort Jackson, South Carolina. An eighth center at Naval Support Activity Bethesda, Md., is temporarily closed as officials mull its future.

The Little Creek-Fort Story center, established in 2009, is smaller than a typical child development center and feels more like a home than a day care. Fifteen children are enrolled full-time at the 24/7 center, which can accommodate up to 27 children from infants through age 12. It’s also in the process of adding to its staff of nine, and expanding its space to add eight more spots for infants during the regular workday.

The open-plan building is stocked with toys and other activities for toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children; kids can do homework, read and play games in the facility’s media room.

When Military Times recently visited the 24-hour facility, teachers encouraged preschoolers to name the first letters of words in an early-reader book, and took suggestions from the kids on what color to shade in clouds while drawing in the center’s science area.

Rather than splitting into age groups like at other child care centers, children at the Little Creek facility learn and play as a group. Each activity is modified to meet the individual needs of each child. And when it’s meal time, the children eat together, family-style.

“All of the activities, we do together,” said Taina Curtis, the center’s director. “Sometimes you’ll see the infants with the older children, and they absolutely love it, because they think they’re big brothers and big sisters here.”

The facility also hosts family events, from a puppy parade to a pizza workshop to a saxophone tutorial.

When it’s time for bed, boys and girls split into separate bedrooms. Each child has their own bed, with their picture hanging nearby and their choice of blankets. Older kids have one bathroom; younger children have another. At night, staff members are required to check on the sleeping children every hour.

While the centers are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, children are rarely there for 24 hours straight, said Kelly Green, director of child and youth programs at JEB Little Creek-Fort Story.

“Parents generally just need a nontraditional schedule,” Green said. “Most of the time a child is in our care for maybe 12 hours.”

Kids enrolled in full-time care can attend the centers for up to 60 hours per week, on average, and are capped at spending 72 continuous hours in their care, except in emergencies as authorized by a commander, according to Navy spokeswoman Destiny Sibert.

To enroll their child full-time at a 24-hour center, a family must prove their work schedule necessitates after-hours care, Sibert said. Parents pay the same rate, based on total family income, that they would pay at a regular military child care facility, Sibert said.

The centers also provide child care to families who occasionally need after-hours help, such as those on 24-hour duty and reservists. In addition, if a 24-hour center has spots available, other families can use it for $8 per hour.

A complicated monthly schedule, hanging on the wall above a beloved fish tank, notes when each child is expected at the Little Creek-Fort Story center to ensure there’s adequate staffing, and to keep tabs on when hourly care might be available to other families. At least two staffers work overnight at the Little Creek-Fort Story center, with added help as needed depending on the number of children, Green said.

But that schedule changes daily as parents hit unexpected snags at work or as their shifts move around.

Master-at-Arms 1st Class Solomon, who works in the base security department at JEB Little Creek-Fort Story, is usually on the clock for 12-hour shifts from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. for two or three days in a row each week. That requires her to be at work by 4:30 a.m. to arm up, and as a supervisor, to account for each of her subordinates.

If she has to be at Fort Story, 20 minutes from Little Creek, that means getting Isaiah to child care earlier. Solomon sometimes can’t leave work until around 6:30 p.m. on the days when a pressing issue arises at the end of a shift.

“Where am I going to get him to a day care at 3 in the morning?” she said. “That’s where the 24/7 centers are clutch for us.”

Her husband Niko is stationed aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan. When the ship’s in port, he’s usually able to take Isaiah to and pick him up from child care — but not while he was deployed from October to March. And even when sailors are home, 24-hour duty days and other commitments can force parents to find extended-hours child care — a particular challenge for those without a support system nearby.

“We don’t have family here,” Imani Solomon said. “I’m from New York originally, and my husband’s from Florida.”

Navy Capt. David Gray, the joint base’s commander, praised the 24-hour center for reassuring sailors and soldiers that their kids will be cared for, despite the unorthodox work hours and responsibilities that can pose struggles for those in uniform.

“Every base should have a 24/7 center,” he said.

No plans to expand

Military families have long struggled to find high-quality, affordable child care for their kids. The coronavirus pandemic further exacerbated those troubles, as staffing shortages limited hours of operation and forced some day cares to close altogether.

During a May 8 hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said there were 12,000 military children on waiting lists for child care as of last year.

“I have to assume the demand would be even greater, except there are some people who just give up and don’t even put a child on the wait list,” she said.

As of May 31, there were 11,007 military children on child care waiting lists, Pentagon spokesman Joshua Wick said Wednesday. That marks a 22% decrease since the end of 2021, when the number stood at about 14,600, Wick said.

He noted that it’s typical to see waiting lists grow ahead of and throughout the summer, when service members are moving to new bases.

Still, around-the-clock child care centers have remained under the radar for many in the military community, and there’s no sign that the services will opt to add more.

“I wasn’t aware that eight locations have 24-hour centers,” said Eileen Huck, of the National Military Family Association. “That’s a great option to have, especially since there are fewer family child cares than in the past.”

Army spokesperson Matt Ahearn said the service has no plans to increase the number of 24-hour child development centers. Nor does the Navy, according to Sibert, who said some of its 24-hour centers haven’t hit capacity.

It costs about twice as much per child to operate a 24/7 center than a regular child development center, Sibert said.

There are no 24/7 child care centers in the Marine Corps, Air Force or Space Force.

“The Department of the Air Force addresses the need for 24-hour child care through the Family Child Care program, which allows children to experience a home-like environment and does not rely upon traditional child development centers for after-hours care,” said Air Force spokeswoman Sarah Fiocco.

The 24-hour centers are rare in the civilian community, too.

“Parents looking for center-based care during [non-standard hours] find their options are either extremely limited or simply nonexistent,” concluded a 2019 report by the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.

Child Care Aware works with a national network of more than 500 child care resource and referral agencies and other partners to help families access high-quality, affordable child care. The organization also administers the military services’ child care fee-assistance programs for military families.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found in 2015 that only 8% of child care centers surveyed in the U.S. provide child care during atypical work hours. Of those, 6% offered overnight care, 2% offered care during evening hours, and 3% offered weekend care.

While family child care providers are more likely to provide care during non-standard hours, only about one in three of those providers provide any non-standard care, according to Child Care Aware.

Without the option of always-open child care, parents who work outside the normal 9-to-5 are forced to cobble together a patchwork of center-based care, family child care homes, and friends, neighbors or family members — if they’re available. And their child care needs are often unpredictable.

Defense officials recognize the need for extended-hours child care to support those who work overnight shifts or conduct night operations, Pentagon spokesman Joshua Wick said. In lieu of adding more 24-hour centers, military officials are working to expand other options for families in need of child care.

Each service has tried to increase child care availability by offering incentives to prospective child care workers and boosting the number of in-home day cares, which can be more flexible than traditional centers. Those family child care home businesses are run by providers — often military spouses — who must meet stringent DOD requirements to offer services in their homes, and cost the least per child to run, Sibert said.

Families are eligible to apply for a program that offers subsidies to cover the cost of local day cares; a pilot program for in-home options like nannies at some locations; or for their local installation’s family child care program, said Marine Corps spokeswoman Maj. Danielle Phillips.

Some providers offer overnight and extended-hour child care for kids as old as 12. Military families in certain locations may also sign onto nanny-sharing agreements so multiple households can benefit from one local provider, at the times that work for them.

Wick added that base commanders set their own local requirements for overnight and extended-hours child care based on their local missions, the volume of requests for that care and the results of occasional surveys.

“In collaboration with the military services, we continue to explore various options to meet the unique needs of military families,” he said.

In 2002, the Navy launched a yearlong pilot program to study the need for and effectiveness of child care centers and family day cares who can provide care around the clock, Sibert said.

“Military parents agreed that the 24/7 type of care offered to them during the pilot period made it much easier for them to focus on their military mission and job requirements, and that this type of care was a significant support in that it greatly contributed to the sailor’s quality of life, particularly for single [parents] and dual-military families,” Sibert said.

But officials found an added benefit: “The commands reported that the 24/7 care model boosted installation morale, even for those who didn’t require child care,” Sibert said.

MA1 Solomon said the military doesn’t have to make exceptions for families like hers, but she’d like to see the services meet people halfway.

“If you want a sailor who is going to be operationally committed and operationally aware, then there needs to be a midway point,” she said. “If we know our children are safe, you will have a great sailor.”

Frequent military moves pose unique difficulties for business-owning spouses, who can take significant hits to their revenue or be forced to shutter altogether as they navigate a web of state regulations and bureaucratic delays. To help keep those entrepreneurs afloat, the military will cover at least part of the cost of moving and removal services for business equipment, new equipment purchases, information technology costs, and fees for business permits, registration and inspections.

“We owe it to them to provide any opportunity to not just have a job, but build a fulfilling career,” said Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen, who as a deputy chief of staff overseeing installations is the Army’s top quality-of-life official.

Lawmakers included the new benefit in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, prompting each branch of the military to craft their own implementation guidelines. The Army announced its new reimbursement policy June 4; the Navy issued its policy April 29. The Air Force and Space Force finalized their own version last fall. The Marine Corps is still developing its guidelines, officials said.

Spouses could already recoup as much as $1,000 spent to obtain new professional licenses due to a permanent change of station — a policy that has been in place for several years. Now they can be reimbursed for both types of spending, totaling up to $2,000 per PCS move.

As long as the spouse owned their business or held the professional credential at a prior duty station — not only the most recent duty station — they can qualify for reimbursement, the Army, Navy and Air Force said.

For example, say a spouse owns a business while at Fort Stewart, Ga., but stops operating the business after moving to Fort Liberty, N.C. A few years later, when the business owner moves again for their spouse’s assignment at the Pentagon, the spouse could still ask the Army to reimburse the costs of operating their business.

The opportunity is available to spouses married to troops who received PCS orders dated Dec. 22, 2023, or later, and will run through the end of 2029. Navy and Air Force spouses must submit requests for reimbursement within 24 months after the PCS orders are issued. The Army did not immediately provide instructions on filing for reimbursement.

More information on reimbursement rules and applications is available through each military branch, or from DOD’s Spouse Education and Career Opportunities Program.

Air Force and Space Force: Service members should contact their installation’s Military and Family Readiness Center with questions about eligibility and how to submit a claim. The finance office will work with the service member and the spouse to verify eligibility and to ensure they provide the right paperwork to prove their qualified expenses.

Navy: The Navy policy points sailors to MPM-1754-04 for information on documentation requirements. That includes documents such as the Memorandum Spouse Licensure Reimbursement Request; the OF-1164 Claim for Reimbursement for Expenditures on Official Business; a copy of PCS orders; a copy of previous license/certificate and the new license/certificate; and a copy of receipts for a new license/certificate or qualified business relocation costs. The package must be scanned and sent by secure email to ASKMNCC.FCY@NAVY.MIL.

Army: The Army directive states that officials will publish an all-Army activities message providing instructions for filing for reimbursement.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Support Our Troops” dashboard offers a chart comparing each airline’s policies on fee waivers, free luggage and refunds for military families during personal travel, or when travel plans change because of a military order. Four companies — Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines — offer some combination of those perks, according to the chart.

Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways and United Airlines are also included in the roundup but have not committed to provide current troops and their families with additional benefits.

In April, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent a letter to the CEOs of these 10 largest airlines, urging them to improve their military travel benefits and publicize them more effectively.

The department “appreciates that carriers currently provide active duty service members and their families various military travel benefits,” Buttigieg wrote. “However, these benefits are not consistently detailed in carriers’ public-facing customer service plans, resulting in many service members being unaware of them.”

The travel benefits “often do not fully address the needs of service members who may need to cancel or change personal travel plans due to military directives,” Buttigieg added.

Following the letter, Spirit, Allegiant and Frontier stepped up their existing commitments to troops and families, according to the Department of Transportation.

Six others — Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue and United — declined to make “clear and enforceable” promises of extra benefits, the department said.

Airlines are required to stick to the benefits outlined in their customer service plans, including commitments to care for service members and their families. The department pledges to hold airlines accountable if they fail to do so.

To build the new “Support Our Troops” dashboard, DOT and Pentagon officials collaborated to evaluate airlines on four basic commitments the government believes are the top priorities for troops and families on the go:

• Whether they waive cancellation fees and ensure full refunds for service members and accompanying family members who cancel travel plans because of a military order or directive (documentation may be required). Three airlines make this commitment.
• Whether they waive change fees for service members and accompanying family members who reschedule flights because of a military order or directive (documentation may be required). Four airlines make this commitment.
• Whether they offer at least one free standard carry-on and at least two free standard checked bags for service members and their accompanying spouse and children, with appropriate identification such as a valid military ID. Four airlines make this commitment.
• Whether they provide the lowest fare for a flight for immediate family members to visit service members recently injured in the line of duty, with supporting documentation. Two airlines make this commitment.

Two airlines — Allegiant and Spirit — pledge to provide all four benefits.

Airlines might offer additional perks to troops and their families, but for those benefits to be reflected on the dashboard, the airlines are required to make those commitments in their customer service plan and provide them to all service members, the department said in a release.

The dashboard applies to current members of the military who are serving or may be called to serve, and who hold a current military ID. That includes members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard, National Guard and reserve components; cadets of the military academies and the Merchant Marine Academy; the U.S. Public Health Service’s Commissioned Corps and Ready Reserve Corps; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s officer corps.

More information is available on the airlines’ websites or by contacting customer service agents.

The military community can also compare prices and snag discounts on upcoming travel through the Defense Department’s American Forces Travel website, which offers deals on flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and travel packages, and event tickets.

While “tens of thousands of [commissary] beneficiaries” practice a religion with unique dietary rules, the stores offer limited certified kosher and halal options and fail to promote them well, Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., wrote to commissary director John Hall.

They warned that failing to sell a wider range of kosher foods, which adhere to strict Jewish dietary laws, and halal options, which are permissible under Islamic law, undermines the military’s diversity and discourages members of those religions from serving in the U.S. armed forces.

“It is critical the Department of Defense ensures that active duty personnel of all religions, including Islam and Judaism, are able to access foods that respect their faith traditions,” wrote Pressley and Houlahan, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee’s quality-of-life panel.

“No active duty personnel should have to sacrifice their faith to serve in our military.”

The commissary agency operates 235 grocery stores on bases around the world, offering groceries at a discount to the military community. But troops, constituents and others have told Pressley’s office of the difficulties they face due to the stores’ dearth of kosher and halal options — which can force observant Jews and Muslims to shell out more money to ship groceries from specialty stores or restrict their eating altogether.

Food is certified as kosher or halal if it does not contain ingredients banned under those dietary laws, like pork or shellfish, and if it is butchered or prepared at a compliant facility and approved by a religious authority or organization such as the Orthodox Union, among other rules. How much kosher or halal food a grocery store stocks depends on how much of a demand for it exists in the local community.

“We request DeCA urgently address issues regarding access to foods that meet religious dietary restrictions,” the lawmakers wrote. They also asked that the agency work with service members and their families “to advertise items as they are made available, incorporate items in meal solutions and special observances promotions, and ensure availability during religious holidays.”

The lawmakers’ press release announcing the letter cited endorsements from two organizations, including the National Military Family Association.

“Military families need access to healthy, familiar food no matter where they live in the world,” NMFA Chief Executive Officer Besa Pinchotti said in the release. “But just as important, they need access to food that adheres to their religious dietary requirements.”

Commissaries and the food industry “constantly strive to offer a wide range of products to serve the diverse military population across the globe in areas where commercial alternatives are limited,” said Steve Rossetti, president of the American Logistics Association, a trade organization of companies whose products are sold in commissaries and exchanges. The ALA also endorsed the lawmakers’ letter to the commissary agency.

“We need to ensure that all consumer tastes and preferences, including religious dietary options, are represented in the commissary offerings,” Rossetti said.

Rossetti also told Military Times that the commissary agency “reserves a significant amount of shelf space to accommodate local patrons’ tastes and preferences,” as well as products from small businesses.

Customers can ask their local commissary to order items that may not be in stock. Information was not immediately available about whether that includes requests for food that complies with religious law, or how often people ask for those products.

The military has taken steps to accommodate the religious dietary needs of service members in settings where there may be no other options, such as on ships and other deployments. For example, the Defense Logistics Agency provides kosher and halal Meals, Ready to Eat to accommodate those who follow strict religious diets.

The Army recently said it would review the rules around the Basic Allowance for Subsistence stipend after concerns surfaced that soldiers had funds deducted from their food allowance for daily meals even when local officials could not provide religious accommodations.

The Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot will for the first time provide early-career opportunities “for those younger spouses who might need to put their foot in the door and start the process of having employment and a career,” Patricia Barron, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, told reporters Monday. That’s in addition to the program’s current “career-ready” fellowships for spouses with more education and experience to prepare them for the positions.

In an earlier announcement, defense officials said the newly added entry-level fellowships could target specific career fields such as taxes or insurance.

The fellowship program, now in its second year of a three-year test period, has been a “rousing success,” Barron said.

Spouses of U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force troops across the active duty, reserve and National Guard can apply for a 12-week position at 250 public- and private-sector employers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program pairs applicants with fellowships as they become available, at employers like Equinix, a company that operates data centers, and Frog Street, an early childhood education curriculum company.

The number of fellowships available depends on what employers decide to offer; the Defense Department pays fellows’ salaries through the Chamber. Applications are accepted throughout the year.

The program’s goal is to land fellows in permanent positions with their employers at the end of the 12-week run.

More than 400 spouses were placed in fellowships in 2023, the program’s first year. About 83% of the “career-ready” fellows have received offers for permanent jobs, Barron said, “which is unheard of.” Salaries for those jobs averaged about $60,000, defense officials said.

Lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee’s military quality-of-life panel have recommended that the program be made permanent.

“It’s been a great program. To be able to sustain it throughout the years would be phenomenal,” Barron said. “We’re getting an awful lot of really good feedback from the military spouses that are involved.”

The unemployment rate for military spouses has stubbornly hovered around 21% for the past decade, according to various surveys.

The problem is exacerbated by the frequent moves military service requires, as well as state licensing rules for many professions and other bureaucratic hurdles.

A number of advocates have asked for the Labor Department to officially track their unemployment rate, as it does for veterans.

“We do have a great relationship with the Department of Labor and have connected with them on various things. The tracking of unemployment for military spouses is something that we’ve both talked about,” Barron said. “I think it’s a little bit harder to track military spouse unemployment, because it’s not a protected group, so sometimes it’s hard to find the information you need.”

“However, we’ve got new tools available to us now, through AI, through some of the analytics that a company like Google might provide,” she said. “I’m not saying that’s what we’re doing, but what I’m saying is that we have new tools we can look at to help us get after that number.”

Online resources in May

For years, military officials have worked to tackle the policy issues that keep the spouse unemployment rate from budging. They’ve also tried to open new opportunities to help military husbands and wives navigate the modern job market.

This month, job seekers can learn from a lineup of speakers and breakout sessions on a range of spouse employment topics as part of a free, virtual career symposium and hiring fairs May 14-30. Participants can register to view the recorded events like “Finding and Mastering Remote Employment” and “Know Your Worth: How to Negotiate Your Perfect Fit,” and to participate in upcoming sessions, at Military OneSource.

A series of webinars, one-on-one resume reviews and mock interviews from Tuesday to Thursday will prepare spouses for next week’s hiring fair.

That fair, scheduled for May 29-30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time, will connect spouses to hiring managers and representatives from more than 700 employers who have committed to recruiting, hiring, retaining and promoting military spouses through DOD’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership.

“Half of our customers are choosing not to shop, even though we saved [customers] 25.5% last year, and we’re at 25% this year” compared to civilian grocery stores, Defense Commissary Agency Director John Hall said at a recent meeting of the American Logistics Association.

“In certain categories, the savings are almost unbelievable. With meat, we’re at 40% and have very, very high quality,” he said.

Hall is working on several initiatives to better serve customers, from newly allowing troops to use their meal cards to purchase food, to expanding the number of items on sale.

“Part of it is the price savings we give, but part of it is what we offer,” Hall said. “We want to look, feel, and have products available that look like commercial grocery chains.”

Those initiatives include:

• Possibly offering more prepared foods — ready to cook, ready to eat, and ready to heat — in stores that have space.
• Expanding seafood offerings.
• Expanding the military’s grocery-delivery service to include all stateside commissaries this year, up from eight stores that currently offer the option.
• Working with the Army and Air Force to allow service members to use their meal card benefits at the commissary. “When I visit commissaries, I see service members in line buying at the deli,” Hall said. “They’re using their own money, and choosing not to use that benefit that can get a free meal essentially, at the dining facility,” he said. Being able to use that meal card benefit “will be a huge, huge change,” he said.
• Offering bulk delivery of grocery items to military units. Hall is also reviving the Guard and Reserve’s “on-site sales,” where commissaries took orders from eligible shoppers who lived far from a store and delivered their items to a selected location for pickup. The commissary agency expects the first on-site sales will take place in June or July.
• Expanding the number of Army installations with conveniently located outposts or kiosks supplied by the commissary. Soldiers can pick up sandwiches, sushi, salads, breakfast sandwiches, fresh-cut fruit and drinks. Hall also plans to begin offering prepared foods in the kiosks.

Anyone with a DOD Common Access Card can purchase what’s available at the outposts or kiosks using their meal card or other forms of payment. Dining facility workers order food for kiosks and outposts from the commissary through a master catalog vetted by an Army dietitian.

There are currently 15 such outposts at 13 installations. Officials aim to launch 13 more this year at nine locations: Ansbach, Germany; Fort Campbell, Kentucky (three locations); Fort Liberty South (two locations) and Fort Liberty North, North Carolina; Fort Stewart, Georgia; Fort Drum, New York; Fort Cavazos, Texas (two locations); Fort Riley, Kansas; and Fort Myer, Virginia.

The commissary agency is also studying its supply chain, with the goal of reducing costs for suppliers and, ultimately, for military families. They’re working to increase commissaries’ overall in-stock rate, or the percentage of goods that are available at a given time, to 98%. Right now, the figure stands at 95%.

“95% is good, but [the difference between 95% and 98%] is … $200 million of product that’s not available to our customers on a yearly basis,” Hall said.

The commissary agency received $1.4 billion to fund operations in 2023, and returned more than $1.5 billion in savings to customers, Hall said. Because the agency gets taxpayer dollars to cover daily operating costs, such as cashiers at the 235 stores worldwide, the commissaries don’t have to pass on those expenses as part of the price customers pay for groceries.

Hall aims to increase sales to $8 billion within five years — up from $4.6 billion in fiscal year 2023 — following a steady decline in commissary sales over about a decade.

“It’s not that we want to get to $8 billion in sales,” he said. “It’s that we want to get $1.1 billion more to our customers in savings.”

Sales this fiscal year are up by about 5% over the same time period last year, and are on track to total about $5 billion this year, Hall said.

That bump is due to inflation as well as foot traffic in stores. Between October and March, there were 33.5 million transactions, or about 1.56 million more transactions than in the same period the previous year — an increase of about 5%.

Commissaries got a big boost from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in September 2022 as his “Taking Care of Our People” initiative pumped more money into the stores in order to cut the prices at the register.

By removing the 2017 Defense Department requirement that commissaries had to make a profit to offset operational costs, Austin enabled commissary officials to drop prices by 3% to 5% across more than 30,000 products in their stores. They targeted reductions in items that most or all shoppers want, like milk, eggs and bread.

Overall savings comparisons vary by region. Each is based on market basket research in a geographic area to determine how much, on average, a commissary shopper could expect to save on grocery purchases compared with local commercial grocers in that area outside the gate.

Those eligible for the commissary shopping benefit include active duty, Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, Medal of Honor recipients, and their authorized family members. Veterans with any Department of Veterans Affairs documented service-connected disability rating are also eligible for commissary shopping, as well as Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war, and individuals approved and designated by the VA as the primary family caregivers of eligible veterans.

These popular, traditional sidewalk sales will be held at various times throughout the month, depending on the commissary. As the name suggests, they’re generally located on sidewalks immediately outside of a store.

All stateside stores, and those in Hawaii and Alaska, will participate in the sales, generally over two or three days. Discounts vary, but promise to cut customers’ costs over and above their usual commissary savings.

This year, regular commissary prices are already 25% lower on average than those at commercial stores outside the gate, officials said.

Products being offered on sale include: baby products; non-food items such as paper towels, toilet paper, wipes and cleaning products; health and beauty products; pet food; snacks, such as nuts, chips and candy; cold cereals; beverages, including flavored water, juices and energy drinks; international foods; and baking and canned goods.

A number of items are sold in bulk, so check your pantry to make sure you’ve got some storage space, and be mindful of how much your vehicle will hold as you transport your stash home. Shoppers in Hawaii, where commissaries won’t offer plastic or paper bags starting Wednesday, should remember to take plenty of reusable bags with them.

Check the Defense Commissary Agency sidewalk sales web page for specific dates. The first sales are slated to start Wednesday at 11 stores:

• Charleston Naval Weapons Station, South Carolina
• New River Marine Corps Air Station, North Carolina
• Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
• Newport Naval Station, Rhode Island
• Key West Naval Air Station, Florida
• Fort Cavazos I (Clear Creek store) and Kingsville NAS, Texas
• Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee
• Beale AFB and El Centro Naval Air Facility, California
• Fort Huachuca, Arizona

Check your local store’s website or ask the store manager for any schedule changes, such as postponements because of weather delays. And as usual, if you’re scheduled to move this summer, keep that in mind as you make your purchases — especially when it comes to things like cleaning supplies, which the movers may not be able to pack in your shipment.

These sales are traditionally held twice a year, in the spring and fall. While they are specific to U.S. stores, customers overseas should check with their commissaries to see if there might be some special deals.

Those eligible for the commissary shopping benefit include active duty, Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, Medal of Honor recipients, and their authorized family members. Veterans with any Department of Veterans Affairs-documented, service-connected disability rating are now eligible for commissary shopping, as well as Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war, and individuals who have been approved and designated as the primary caregivers of eligible veterans by the VA.

Efforts to ditch single-use bags are gradually taking effect at U.S.-run grocery stores at military bases around the world, so be prepared with reusable bags. Guam’s commissaries got rid of plastic and paper bags as of March 15, and Hawaii’s commissaries will follow starting April 30. California and Washington will eliminate the bags on June 30.

As for the remaining commissaries around the world, the Defense Commissary Agency plans to continue rolling out reusable bag policies “based on each location’s needs and legislative environment” until each store no longer carries single-use bags, officials said in a release.

Once a store makes the shift, it won’t offer plastic or paper bags at all — not even for purchase, said Tressa Smith, a spokeswoman for the Defense Commissary Agency.

But customers who don’t bring their own reusable bags can buy one. Prices start at 35 cents, regardless of location, with more expensive options available. Commissaries have already sold reusable bags for a number of years.

One retired officer in Washington state told Military Times that he needed 44 free single-use bags for his groceries on a recent commissary run. Purchasing 44 reusable bags that one time would add $15.40 to his grocery bill.

In comparison, he said, his local Seattle-area Safeway charges 8 cents for a single-use bag — totaling about $3.50 each time he needed a 44-bag haul.

While it’s true that single-use bags may be cheaper, consumers can ultimately pay more for them in the long run than by routinely using sturdier reusable bags that can haul groceries for months or years.

Commissaries also offer hot/cold bags for sale. Costs for reusable bags in the civilian commercial market vary widely depending on the manufacturer and the material, with many available for less than $1.

As some areas have adopted “green” laws that look to curb plastic and paper waste, businesses might still offer those options for a price. That varies by location, too. For example, some jurisdictions in Virginia require charging 5 cents per single-use bag, while some in Maryland require 10 cents.

Smith, the commissary agency spokesperson, stressed that not all commissaries are affected yet.

“We are only eliminating single-use bags in Guam, Hawaii, Washington and California at this time,” she said.

By moving away from single-use bags, commissary officials note, the agency “will keep thousands of single-use bags, which take years to break down, out of landfills worldwide.”

Lawmakers are pushing the Air Force and Army to find a solution for Army families in the 7th Special Forces Group at Camp “Bull” Simons and other Navy and Air Force families in the area who have struggled to find child care in the Florida Panhandle. The shortage has pushed some families to drive nearly an hour each way to the closest military child development center — if space is even available there.

“It is incredibly frustrating that a solution for the families that need the [child development center] at Camp Bull Simons continues to be delayed, and that families still don’t have access to a CDC that is within a reasonable commute,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee’s military construction panel, during an April 17 hearing.

“Being expected to drive over an hour each way to drop off your child or pick them up at a child development center is not an acceptable solution,” she said.

Plans to build a CDC in fiscal year 2025 have been pushed to FY26, Wasserman Schultz said, “as it’s not executable in 2025.”

Ravi Chaudhary, assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, energy and environment, said Army and Air Force officials are nearing an agreement “in the coming weeks” on where a permanent CDC should go.

“Bull” Simons is an Army camp but is technically part of Eglin Air Force Base. As part of base realignment and closures in 2005, the camp was carved out of a remote area of an Eglin bombing range that the Air Force uses for weapons testing. Though about 2,600 military and civilian workers live and work there, the camp has few amenities: barracks, a chapel, a medical clinic and an Army and Air Force Exchange shopette, but no child development center, family housing or commissary.

That lack of local child care has proven a major complication for the 7th Special Forces Group, one of the Army’s most elite units that handles counter-drug, counterinsurgency, foreign military training and other covert missions across Central and South America and the Caribbean. Its soldiers were also heavily deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan throughout the war on terror.

Army officials and 7th SFG families want the child development center on the camp near the chapel, where it would be convenient for soldiers. But Air Force officials have said they are concerned about the children’s safety because the camp is adjacent to Eglin’s active bombing range.

Chaudhary told Wasserman Schultz at the hearing that while the Air Force will consider building a child care center inside the perimeter of Camp “Bull” Simons, “my general sense is that the risk calculation is not favorable.”

“I don’t want to get ahead of our Army secretary and Air Force secretary, because it’s their decision to make,” Chaudhary said. But “the feedback that we’ve received from the test community [is] … that it wouldn’t be an option.”

“We want to make sure we do two things,” he continued. “We want to ensure the safety of our members who are at a CDC, and at the same time accommodate them as expeditiously as possible.”

How bad is the child care shortage? Ask these Florida families

Many thought the issue had already been decided.

In October 2022, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced the service had plans to begin building a new CDC at the camp in FY25. But that work has stalled as the Army and Air Force struggle to hash out the details.

Despite concerns in the Air Force that putting a child care center near a bombing range would be dangerous, Army Special Operations Command officials have said they are confident in the camp’s safety protocols. They argue that adding a new CDC wouldn’t increase that risk.

Wasserman Schultz said she is concerned that the Air Force and Army aren’t properly communicating with local families. Chaudhary said the Army has asked to relay the plan to families once the military services come to an agreement on the path forward.

“The rumors surrounding the CDC are too hard to track,” said Stu Bradin, president and CEO of the Global Special Operations Forces Foundation, who has advocated for Camp “Bull” Simons families. “The optimum solution is to have the facility on an existing military installation where parents work and that is secure. Camp ‘Bull’ Simons would be the best course of action.”

The foundation recommends that a child development center be built to accommodate 500 children; at last count, there were 436 children in the 7th Special Forces Group who were age 4 or younger. The figure doesn’t include children of troops in other units in the area.

Interim solutions

Child care has been a struggle for 7th Special Forces Group families since the organization moved from then-Fort Bragg, N.C., in 2011 to create Camp “Bull” Simons. Their situation illustrates just one example of the difficulties military families around the world often have in finding affordable and safe child care.

Crestview, Florida, where the majority of the group’s families live, is about 20 minutes northeast of “Bull” Simons — which people must pass on the 45-minute-plus drive to reach child care at Eglin. Options in the civilian community are scarce as well.

While studying a permanent solution for child care in the region, Chaudhary said, officials have added spaces for 59 children in family-run day cares, and are renovating one of the child development centers at Eglin. Chaudhary said there are CDC slots available for the “Bull” Simons families at Eglin who want to make the drive.

As another interim solution, the Air Force is renovating a facility to be used for child care in Crestview that’s closer to where more than half of “Bull” Simons families live.

The military is also considering building a new child care facility in Crestview, Chaudhary said. But families like the security that comes with a CDC being on base. Besides security, there are other concerns related to the military lifestyle, Bradin said.

“If they go for the permanent solution in Crestview, it would have to be at the DOD standards,” Bradin said. “The special operations forces at ‘Bull’ Simons and Hurlburt Field are all deployable, and that means the CDCs can have extended hours, should there be a crisis.”

A secure facility in Crestview that can accommodate deployments would be the second-best option, he added.

“What we can’t have is the government investment in a facility that is not secure,” Bradin said. “They have high standards for a reason.”