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By Katie Schubert
After organizing and packing up every possession they own, getting everything onto a moving truck, getting to the new destination, unloading, unpacking, reorganizing and getting settled in a new home, many people will declare they will “never do that again!” For military families, this is their reality every two to three years.
Moves that take families OCONUS (outside the continental United States) are more complicated and involved. OCONUS moves are conducted entirely by the military and third-party contractors hired to carry out different components and steps of the move.
From “pack out day” to arrival day, most CONUS (inside the continental United States) moves take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks at most.
OCONUS moves, however, take significantly longer, leaving families without their possessions for several months at a time. The majority of a family’s belongings go in a shipment called the HHG (house hold goods) that are shipped by land to a coast and then put on a boat to the new duty station. They can send a small shipment of goods by airplane to arrive sooner, but it’s restricted to 1,000 to 2,000 pounds and may not include bulky items such as furniture or mattresses.
“You have to try to anticipate what’s going to happen, which is really hard because you cannot read into the future,” says Sarah.*
Sarah recently moved with her family from an overseas duty station back to the U.S. When moving overseas, she meticulously planned the timing of the family’s move. “We knew our stuff was getting packed out early because [we’re] going overseas. You have your express shipment. And then you have your regular shipment. So, in your head you are turning into this logistical planner.
“On overseas moves, when it comes to pantry items, household cleaners, lightbulbs, batteries, candles—so many things you cannot take with you—it ends up being a massive expense [to replace everything].”
Lost Items and Reimbursements
Another expense many families find themselves frustrated with is the amount they get reimbursed if their property is damaged or destroyed. Many are also frustrated by the process and length of time it takes to see a payout. Kelley and Ashley Fairchild live with their two sons in England where Kelley is finishing up a tour of duty before they move to Virginia this month.
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After arriving in England, “it took nine months to a year for us to get paid,” Kelley Fairchild says. “And we did not get paid what our broken things were worth.”
Ashley Fairchild adds, “By the time we replaced the bed, and the desk and the small things like laundry baskets, lampshades and stuff like that, we spent more than $2,500.” The Fairchilds say they were not fully reimbursed for that amount.
Sarah had a similar experience in her family’s most recent move. While some moves go as planned, it’s not uncommon for families to receive their HHG and much of it is damaged. Like the Fairchilds, Sarah found the claims process, “painfully tedious.”
To file a claim for reimbursement, each item must be listed individually. “You need to go line by line with multiple photos to show what’s broken,” Sarah says. “You have to write an explanation of what is damaged and how and what the value is. You have to go online to provide a link to something comparable or the same thing, including any delivery costs or taxes.”
In Sarah’s case, two of her family’s seven crates from her most recent move are moldy and bug-infested, which includes several totes of clothes for her children. “There are well over 100 pieces in there, and you have to itemize everything.”
Making the claims process even more frustrating is multiple companies handle moves. “It’s whomever won the bid,” Sarah shares. “In our case, we have three different companies we are dealing with.”
Sarah estimates that for her family’s move back stateside, they incurred more than $15,000 worth of damages to their possessions. “Why would you put a weight rack on top of a tool chest?” she wonders. The tool chest “actually went through the bottom of the crate because there was too much weight. So much stuff was damaged.”
Managing Movers
Like Sarah and the Fairchilds, Nancy Hirsch Deskin has had her fair share of frustration with military moves. Hirsch Deskin and her family just finished their third straight OCONUS move (Spain to Japan to Italy). Their most difficult move, however, was a CONUS one.
“The worst by far was our move from Pensacola, [Florida] to 29. Palms, [California] in 2016,” she begins. “For this move, we had only two packers show up on the first day of the pack out and they forgot to bring wardrobe boxes. They packed less than half of what needed to be packed.”
The following day, the movers went to another house before coming back to complete her family’s move. “When they finally did show up, they mixed up packing numbers and we received a box from other people’s shipment when we arrived at our destination.”
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Hirsch Deskin also notes that the contractors packed a rug in the hallway of her building that belonged to the housing complex where she and her family lived, as well as left one of their boxes behind entirely.
Kelley Fairchild recalls a similar experience during his family’s pack-out to England in 2021. “When we moved out here, we had awful movers,” he says. “They packed a diaper can full of dirty diapers. They improperly loaded the crates so that when the movers opened them [in England], our hardwood furniture fell out and broke.”
During her pack out in Florida in 2016, Hirsch Deskin recalls her housing complex demanded they do a move-out inspection at an unplanned time even though the movers had not finished. “They made my movers stop what they were doing during the pack out and move everything I owned onto the front lawn so they could do the final housing inspection and go home for the day,” she recalls with frustration.
When she and her family finally got in their cars to begin their cross-country journey at 8 p.m., the movers were still loading up her possessions.
Hirsch Deskin, Sarah and the Fairchilds all agree that one of the best things you can do to protect yourself in a move like this is to document everything. “Take videos of your TV working the morning of the move,” Sarah recommends. “That way you have proof.”
An additional unexpected problem families who move OCONUS can face is time zone differences when trying to speak to a person back in the states. This is made more complicated because in many instances, only the service member can make official decisions and speak with personnel in the moving departments stateside.
“Not allowing my spouse to be my full partner in our moves makes it exponentially more difficult for both of us,” says Kelley Fairchild.
Ashley Fairchild adds on that “it’s super frustrating to be so unsupported when it is something that is completely required of us to do. There should be more supports in place to make this a less frustrating process.”
*Sarah requested to be anonymous because her spouse is currently active duty and there is concern of retribution.
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