{"id":79154,"date":"2025-11-24T20:28:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/11\/24\/as-shutdown-affected-military-moves-task-force-helped-resolve-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:15:09","slug":"as-shutdown-affected-military-moves-task-force-helped-resolve-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2025\/11\/24\/as-shutdown-affected-military-moves-task-force-helped-resolve-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"As shutdown affected military moves, task force helped resolve issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

About 2,100 military household goods shipments were delayed during the government shutdown, even though they had been funded to move in late September with fiscal 2025 dollars, according to officials with the Permanent Change of Station Joint Task Force<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That represents about 20% of the approximately 11,000 permanent change of station shipments during that time. The 2,100 shipments do not match the number of service members affected, because there is often more than one shipment associated with each service member\u2019s move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the task force, established in May by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has already taken steps to improve the process of moving service members\u2019 household goods, some of which helped address problems during the shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The task force operations center and call center set up this summer have been \u201cknee deep\u201d in addressing problems during the shutdown, Army Maj. Gen. Lance G. Curtis, the task force commander, told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were proactive in reaching out to service members that we thought were going to be affected by the shutdown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that helped us. Ideally, we would have liked the percentage to be at 0%, but I think it was a good news story that we were able to get ahead of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While officials have not yet conducted a complete analysis of the problem during the shutdown, they say it was largely tied to the furlough of civilian workers in the shipping offices at the start of October, said Marine Corps Lt. Col. John Naughton, now the task force\u2019s liaison officer in the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Task force officials were able to work with the service branches to bring those civilian workers back into work, he said, \u201cand that helped alleviate some of the issues that we were seeing early on in the shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curtis said the task force\u2019s call and operations centers worked with service members to get their moves back on track. They worked with defense and service officials, he said, noting that they also had to follow the rules set by each of the service branches to meet their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI personally wrote several notes to get involved when we became aware, and got the call center involved in that as well. Some of it I think had to do with getting the right information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the powers of the call center, is that we are able to connect people who may be feeling like they\u2019re not getting accurate information, with the authoritative source for that information. \u2026 Some were communications problems, and some were problems where we had to get involved with the services to solve it,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urges service members and family members who have a problem with their move, including with claims or other issues, to contact the call center at 833-645-6683 (833-MIL-MOVE) or pcscallCenter@mail.mil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to be the one belly button for people who are frustrated, to help them out,\u201d Curtis said. <\/p>\n\n\n\t