Comments (8)

1. 

   Community Member

   20 year Air Force vet here. This sounds good budget-wise, but if enacted, no one would be available to go to less desirable duty stations. Everyone would stay at the prime spots.

   2 years ago

   0
2. 

   Community Member

   You are both right. Pros and cons in jsut about everything we try to do in a uniform. I am also in the military. Some of us are actually transferred from certain types of units after serving only two years. Air force vet, thanks for your service!- yes, there would be trouble filling those undesirable jobs, but by at least giving the option and to put a "cap" on how long one could stay at a unit could cut PCS move costs in HALF! thats HALF! At least make it an option, at least give it a chance!!!! For example, my last THREE duty stations, I was in a finance role which required an onsite relief, meaning I couldnt leave until my replacement got there and we had a chance to go over things together. All three times neither he nor I wanted to leave where we were at and the person I went to relieve did not want to leave where they were at and so on and so on. Granted this might not have been the case but in one week, four people were paid a total in excess of 10 thousand dollars per peice when you calculate houshold goods, travel pay including all the little thigns like TLE and MALT and perdiem. Do the math on how many pairs of boots are packing up and swapping duty stations every summer! Two, three, four years, its all the same. It's far too frequent. Something needs to be revised in this age old policy. It is out of date, thoughtless and wasteful. People at a low level like us who actually WISH to help with govenment saving and eliminating waste cannot do so because we are "told" what to do and when to do it. Its easy to give a direct order withought insight when you have bottomless pockets to spend from like the military does. If I could click the agree button ten times I would! Great idea, i've been thinking it for yearS!!!!!

   2 years ago

   0
3. 

   Community Member

   Incidentally the Foreign Service (Diplomatic Service) works the same way - people moving every 2 to 3 years or sometimes even less - it's absurd considering how much time and money is spent teaching one to speak the local language. Some posts (Chinese, Korean, etc) people can spend almost as much time on per diem in language training in D.C. as they do once they finally get to post.

   2 years ago

   0
4. 

   Community Member

   20 year Navy vet. Many moves including Europe for 10 month PCS then back to CONUS. There are reasons for moves, some professional development, some joint related, others training related (i.e., war college); but, depending on your rating, MOS, warfare specialty, etc., there are probably jobs that would fall into this category and should be explored.

   2 years ago

   0
5. 

   Community Member

   I think that people still need to move around, but I think they need to be a little smarter about it. I am in Japan, and I see people who are sent to ships for two or three years, and then they get sent to another ship for another two or three years. This makes no sense because you have to pay to move the member, and then you have to train and or requalify them on everything. Complete waste of money in my opinion. If somebody is going from ship to ship, then they should force them to stay where they are. If they don't like it, leave, we are at a point in time where we can pick and choose who we want to stay and if people don't like this, they can go home.

   2 years ago

   0
6. 

   Community Member

   I totaly agree with all comments above. Sometimes, military members must move, for whatever reason. Conversely, they don't need to move just to be moving. I am retired USAF. I was at an assignment in the UK. I had been there 5 years. A new branch chief (E-8) arrived. I applied for another extension; the branch chief said he thought I needed to PCS to get command exposure to enhance my career. I appealed to my commander; my extension was approved. However, for the next two years, my performance ratings suffered until the E-8 moved on. I stayed 8 years at the same location. No need to move solely for the purpose of moving.

   2 years ago

   0
7. 

   Community Member

   Implementing this would also cut down on the number of Change of Commands. Change of Commands are very expensive and labor intensive. Then when the new commander arrives they always refurbish their office space, often costing $20K - $50K. It's usually the wives that make the decisions on this with no care for the expense. Many Commanders are just reaching their stride when they must move on.

   2 years ago

   0
8. 

   Community Member

   As a post command CO I can tell you that the tradition of visually changing leadership is very important to the rank and file. Yes, it takes time to get spaces ship shape and then there's the time for the actual ceremony. However, we were flying a maintenance hop the same day as the command ceremony and the only cash outlay was from MY pocket. I don't support reducing or eliminating the CoCs.

   2 years ago

   0