There’s not enough data to determine the risk of long-term health effects caused by exposure to that kerosene-based aviation fuel, known as JP-5, according to the report, which was based on research conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The authors did find “limited, suggestive evidence linking jet fuel exposure to short-term respiratory, gastrointestinal, skin and mental health symptoms,” which many military families experienced early on after the fuel leak.

The researchers cited the dearth of information and data about the detection, treatment and long-term effects of exposure to jet fuel in the 282-page report, titled “Clinical Follow-up and Care for Those Impacted by the JP-5 Releases at Red Hill.”

The research was sponsored by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

In a Thursday webinar, researchers said the limitation of data needs to be addressed so that long-term health effects can be better understood. They recommended various long-term research efforts.

Meanwhile, medical providers caring for people who were potentially exposed to the contaminated water should document exposure history, carefully evaluate and document symptoms and ensure continuity of primary care, the researchers recommended.

About 93,000 people were affected by the Navy’s two accidental releases of JP-5 in 2021. The fuel releases contaminated the drinking water supply for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the Aliamanu Military Reservation.

Immediately after the contamination, Navy officials told families it was OK to drink and bathe in the water. Some families experienced severe rashes, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems, as well as respiratory problems, mental health symptoms and other issues.

Military officials later gave families the choice of moving to hotels while the fuel was being flushed from the water distribution system and paid their expenses.

More than four years later, families continue to be concerned about their long-term health, including their children. Many babies were bathed in the contaminated water. Some people have had persistent, continuing symptoms. About 2,000 military families have filed lawsuits against the government alleging negligence and harm to their health.

There are no diagnostic or screening tests to determine past exposure, and there are no specific laboratory tests for detecting JP-5 in blood or urine. The report recommended research to develop and validate biological markers of petroleum associated with exposure to jet fuel, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, DOD and VA.

There are no known medical procedures that can detox or neutralize the effects of JP-5, the researchers stated.

In addition to their extensive review of available scientific evidence, the researchers visited Red Hill and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and held 15 meetings with those affected in the community, including service members, military families, civilians and other Oahu residents. They also held additional in-person and virtual listening sessions.

A central theme that emerged from these community interactions was the breakdown of trust between residents and the medical system, researchers found. Families reported repeatedly trying to seek help for themselves and their children, while their conditions worsened.

Those individuals who were affected by the fuel leaks have been encouraged to sign up for registries, including the University of Hawaii Red Hill Independent Health Registry and, for the DOD population, the Red Hill Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System (DOEHRS) Registry.

But the researchers recommended that DOD link their Red Hill registry with patients’ electronic health records and claims data. Many in the mobile military community who were affected have relocated, and their electronic health record follows them.

Researchers recommended that DOD maintain this registry and expand it to include all individuals who lived or worked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam or Aliamanu from May 6, 2021 to March 18, 2022.

Based on their review, the Academies researchers recommended other actions that could make a positive impact on the lives of people who are affected by these incidents in the future, such as developing a standardized environmental sampling and chemical analysis methods to test for petroleum contamination in drinking water.

“For military families, the event was experienced as a breach of trust, while for many civilians and Native Hawaiians, it confirmed enduring concerns about military activities and their impact on land and water,” the report stated.

“The contamination of drinking water at Red Hill stands as a defining environmental health event for Hawaii and for the nation,” the report continued. “It reveals how deeply the safety of water, the health of communities and the integrity of institutions are intertwined.

“For thousands of families the crisis raises serious questions about drinking water safety and breached trust with institutions.”

With the U.S. and Israel attacks against Iran in their third week, Americans’ thoughts and actions have been turning toward sending care packages with various hygiene products, snacks and a host of other items.

But according to the U.S. Postal Service, there are currently 28 ZIP codes where mail services have been temporarily suspended, all of which appear to be Army or Air Force post offices. No ships are currently listed, although mail service is sporadic in many locations because of operational needs and restrictions. There are also 17 Diplomatic Post Office (DPO) suspensions.

The U.S. Postal Service doesn’t share exact locations associated with APO, FPO or DPO ZIP codes with the public, said David P. Coleman, a spokesman for the Postal Service. The decisions about suspensions of service to military and diplomatic post offices are made by the Military Postal Service Agency and the Department of State.

The Military Postal Service Agency serves as an extension of the U.S. Postal Service and provides postal services to Defense Department personnel and their families at locations around the world.

What happens to those care packages if they can’t be delivered?

Packages that were accepted before their particular ZIP code suspension took effect are held for future delivery after the suspension is lifted, Coleman said.

“No packages are being returned to sender at this time,” he said.

If a customer takes a package to a postal counter for mailing, the automated system will inform the postal employee that mail services have been suspended for that ZIP code, and the representative will hand the package back to the customer. If the customer drops off the package in a receptacle, the package will be held for future delivery after the suspension is lifted.

Scott Raab, director of operations for Troopathon, a nonprofit charity that has sent over 1,000 tons of hand-packed boxes of items to troops over the past two decades, said he sent 1,000 boxes to the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford on March 12, and another 2,000 boxes to troops elsewhere that week.

The organization always checks to make sure service members’ ZIP codes are not on the suspension list, he told Military Times. He urges others to check the U.S. Postal Service’s suspension list, which is updated frequently, and has been updated daily this week.

While Troopathon primarily uses the Postal Service, they also have contacts within units, where they can find additional ways to get boxes to troops to fulfill their needs. There’s a form for requesting a care package at Troopathon.org. Troops can request the packages, and families can request them for their deployed service members.

The Troopathon boxes are always free to the troops or their families who request them, and they contain a couple hundred dollars’ worth of items, Raab said. Troopathon also raises money for postage, which is generally about $15 to $20 for each 12X12x6 box. Popular items include basic hygiene products, snacks, cookies, coffee and socks.

One military mother posted on social media about the needs of her son’s squadron at his base in the Middle East after their military exchange had to close. That post quickly spread to other spouse groups, and Amazon found out about it — and contacted her about sending items.

“Now all of these people from all over the world are sending his base thousands of dollars of goodies like protein bars, cans of coffee, energy drinks, tampons, toilet paper, body wipes and toothbrushes,” she told Military Times.

“I don’t know when they’re ever going to get it because they’re not delivering mail, because they have more important things to deliver, but when they do deliver, they’re going to have a whole lot of goodies coming their way,” added the Air Force mother, who asked to remain anonymous.

“I told my son, ‘I understand that you guys aren’t getting any mail, but there’s going to come a time when your people get tired and they’re going to need some care packages just for morale.’”

Those civilians, who aren’t eligible beneficiaries of military medical care, include a variety of people, from Department of Defense civilian employees to other civilians who received emergency and trauma treatment at any military treatment or clinic, both overseas and stateside, since June 21, 2023.

Military medical facilities can provide care to individuals who aren’t eligible beneficiaries in certain circumstances, by law, usually on a reimbursable basis. But the high cost of medical care was putting some of these civilians in financial distress. So Congress passed a provision in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that gave DOD the authority to protect patients from financial harm, to apply a sliding fee scale and catastrophic fee waiver.

The billing was paused in June 2023 in order for DOD to develop the new Military Health System Modified Payment and Waiver Program, to help these civilians who face financial difficulty.

Once the patient receives a medical bill, if they face financial harm, they are encouraged to apply for the program, officials stated in an email response to questions.

“We encourage all non-beneficiary civilians who received treatment in an MTF or clinic after June 21, 2023 to take full advantage of this program to see how much financial relief they may qualify for when they receive their bill,” officials stated.

While officials did not provide a timeline for the bills, a Feb. 6 Federal Register final rule implementing the program stated it became effective March 9. Information was not available about the estimated total amount of the billing. Each individual bill will vary and is determined by the length and type of treatment.

According to the Military Health System, if patients have other health insurance, the military hospital or clinic where they received care will file medical claims on their behalf. The patient will be responsible for copays, coinsurance, deductibles, nominal fees and non-covered services.

Those without health insurance will get a bill from the military hospital or clinic where they received care.

Each bill will include instructions on how to apply for financial relief through the program.

All complete applications will be evaluated based on the standards outlined in the final rule, applying a sliding fee scale and catastrophic waiver benefits, officials said. The final rule also guarantees flexible installment plans to allow patients to spread out their payments over up to 72 months.

The Federal Register rule outlines an initial process for determining the sliding fee discount and catastrophic fee waiver, using the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Those whose annual household income is at or below 100% of that year’s Federal Poverty Guidelines may receive a full discount on their bill; others receive discounts based on the sliding scale. Those federal guidelines are based on annual household income and family size.

For example, for those in the U.S., except for Alaska and Hawaii, a household of four people with an annual income of $32,150 would be at 100% of the federal poverty level in 2026.

Instructions for applying for financial relief are also available at the MPWP web page. Patients can also contact the Defense Health Agency’s Debt Adjudication office for assistance, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time at 210-295-3344, or by email at DHA-MPWP-Inquiries@health.mil.

Tricare Prime beneficiaries who see a primary care manager at a military hospital or clinic may be able to get a virtual appointment for urgent care if their local military treatment facility is booked, Tricare officials announced Thursday.

Patients can contact the Military Health System Nurse Advice line online or by phone at 1-800-TRICARE (874-2273). A nurse will assess whether they can get a virtual appointment that day or the following.

“This is part of the Defense Health Agency’s effort to improve health care access,” said Army Lt. Col. Ryan Shubat, chief of the Defense Health Agency’s primary care and mental health health care optimization, in the announcement.

The service is offered in the United States for eligible beneficiaries aged 12 and older, but not overseas or in U.S. territories.

Providers can address common urgent care issues, officials said, such as sinus congestion and infections; coughs; allergies; sore or hoarse throat; rashes; acne; muscle and joint pain; and headaches.

The nurse will ask about a patient’s symptoms, and decide whether the symptoms can be treated virtually. If it works for the patient, the nurse will set up the virtual appointment with a health care provider. Appointments are available from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Providers can write prescriptions and send them directly to the patient’s pharmacy.

All virtual urgent care providers meet high standards for patient care, officials said. Each provider has credentials and privileges at a Defense Health Agency military hospital or clinic.

The visit is recorded in the patient’s electronic health record.

During a hearing on quality-of-life issues before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe cited a lack of available appointments for health care, and problems with Tricare’s reimbursement rates for health care providers in communities.

“What we’ve all seen over the length of our careers is a gradual erosion in the availability of that health care for our service members and their families,” Wolfe said.

This has been an issue for years, and problems with health care access have been exacerbated by new Tricare contracts implemented last year.

In spite of the time, effort and money spent on improving quality of life for service members and their families, “when you get down to the tactical level, there’s a gap,” said Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna. “They’re not feeling it day to day. They’re not feeling it around the kitchen table. They’re not feeling it when they call to get an appointment. They’re not feeling it when they try to get child care.”

The enlisted leaders talked about a range of issues, including their concerns about suicide and mental health, improvements to barracks, child care availability and uncertainty about pay related to federal shutdowns.

The services and the Defense Department have been working to increase child care slots. But Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised concerns about the persistent and long waitlists for military child care, citing waitlists of 7,800 children at the end of 2025.

“When I come back to ask these questions a year from now, are we still going to have a waitlist that’s 7,800 babies long?” she asked.

Warren contends the services haven’t done enough to attract and keep child care workers. The attrition rate is about 50% for child care workers in military child development centers, Warren said, and she criticized the Army, Navy and Air Force for not upgrading the pay scales by April 2025 as required by law.

When asked why they leave, workers say it’s low pay, according to Warren.

“You have the tools from Congress. We’ve already given them to you and you haven’t picked them up and used them,” she said.

However, Wolfe and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman said they’ve been told that their services have already upgraded their pay scales, and it has made a difference in the staffing.

“We have moved out with [using] the authorities. We are making significant progress in reducing our waitlist,” Perryman said, while noting it’s not okay to have 1,400 children still waiting for care.

“Right now, we’ve got about 2,700 [children] with unmet need across the Air Force. And that’s absolutely not where we want to be,” Wolfe said. “We are committed to making sure that this number goes down over time and does not creep back up.”

But Warren said parents don’t have time to wait. “They don’t have a year that they can just set aside while they’re waiting around on a 1,400 or 2,700 waitlist. They’ve got to have child care now.”

To the Space Force and Marine Corps, she said, “You nailed it. And let’s keep it up because that’s what we’ve got to do.

“We can’t say that we are a military that cares about our families if we pretend to provide child care and then we’ve got a waitlist that’s got 7,800 babies waiting on it.”

The costs for the voluntary dental program depend on the sponsor’s military status, as well as how many people are covered in the plan. Dentists are available in the United Concordia dental network in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Active-duty service members don’t pay for dental care, but the dental program offers coverage for their family members, as well as National Guard and Reserve members and their eligible family members.

The monthly premium for one family member of an active-duty service member in pay grades E-4 and below will increase by $0.14, up to $8.79 per month. For more than one family member, the monthly premium will increase by $0.37, up to $22.85.

For sponsors in pay grades E-5 and above, the monthly premium for one family member increases by $0.19, to $11.72. The monthly premium for more than one family member will increase by $0.49, to $30.47

The largest cost increase for the dental program comes for nonmobilized Individual Ready Reserve members buying coverage for themselves and family, increasing by $1.72 a month, to $105.48.

This coverage is separate from medical coverage, and requires separate enrollment. To enroll, the sponsor must have at least one year of military service remaining. The new premiums take effect automatically for those who are already enrolled.

The dental program is a pay-ahead program, meaning payments are for the next month of coverage. The new monthly rates take effect March 1, but families will see the change in their February bill. The rates are effective through February 2027.

Beneficiaries can find out more information about enrolling and payment options here.

In 2025, many military families saw decreases in their monthly Tricare dental premiums, with some active-duty families seeing their premiums drop by nearly one-third.

Starting Feb. 28, active duty family members who live far from a military hospital or clinic, and who are enrolled in Tricare Prime Remote in the United States, will get their covered prescriptions for free.

They’ll have $0 copayments for prescriptions filled at retail network pharmacies as well as through the Tricare Pharmacy Home Delivery, according to an announcement Tuesday by the Defense Health Agency. It applies to all covered prescriptions, including generic drugs, brand-name drugs and non-formulary drugs.

“This change will help military families without access to military pharmacies keep their pharmacy costs down,” said U.S. Public Health Service Cmdr. Teisha Robertson, chief of the Pharmacy Integration Branch at the Defense Health Agency, in an announcement of the waiver. Patients can fill prescriptions at military hospitals or clinics at no cost.

The waiver will save these active duty family members $16 for a 30-day supply of generic drugs and $48 for brand-name medications filled at retail network pharmacies. For those using the mail order pharmacy, it will save $14 for a 90-day supply of generic drugs and $44 for name-brand drugs.

These families who are filling prescriptions for non-formulary drugs will save $85, and will still be required to get a medical necessity approval from Express Scripts. Otherwise they’ll have to get the prescription filled at a retail pharmacy and pay the full cost of the drug.

By law, families can enroll in Tricare Prime Remote if both the sponsor’s home and work addresses are more than 50 miles, or a one-hour drive, from a military hospital or clinic.

About 58,000 active duty family members are enrolled in Tricare Prime Remote in the United States, and will benefit from the waiver, according to Tricare officials. That number doesn’t include those enrolled in Tricare Prime Remote Overseas.

This waiver doesn’t apply to those overseas, according to Defense Health Agency officials. Active duty families enrolled in Tricare Prime Remote Overseas will still pay the pharmacy copayment.

Tricare beneficiaries don’t pay for prescriptions at military pharmacies. Active duty personnel don’t pay cost-shares or co-pays at retail pharmacies for covered medications.

Active duty family members won’t have to take action for the change to take effect, and they won’t have to file their own claims for reimbursement, officials said. Those who fill a covered prescription starting Feb. 28 will automatically have a copayment of $0.

“We welcome this new policy, which honestly is long overdue,” Eileen Huck, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, told Military Times. “Families shouldn’t have to pay more for their prescriptions simply because they are not stationed near a [military treatment facility.]

“We appreciate that DHA recognized the needs of families in Tricare Prime Remote locations and made this change.”

In an increasingly digital world in which it is easy to mask identity, lawmakers should ensure federal agencies “don’t have a monopoly on enforcement,” Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2021 to 2025, said during the Jan. 21 House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Democrats discussion.

“We should be rethinking our enforcement strategy and policy approach,” added Chopra.

That might mean amending laws to give state attorneys general more enforcement authority in protecting troops and veterans, he said, and in many cases give private citizens the ability to pursue legal action.

The staff at CFPB has been “obliterated” over the last year with the change in administrations, said Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

“We went through this whole thing with [the Department of Government Efficiency] to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Takano said. “But there’s tremendous fraud being perpetrated, and we’re not equipping our government to protect American citizens.”

A federal judge in December blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to defund the CFPB. Since its opening in 2011, it has returned $21 billion to consumers, according to Chopra.

In 2024, meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission received about 210,000 consumer fraud complaints from troops and their families, with losses totaling nearly $600 million.

Chopra said the CFPB and the FTC haven’t brought a single enforcement action over the past year related to violations of the Military Lending Act, or abuses in the Veterans Affairs mortgage program or G.I. Bill.

Among other things, the Military Lending Act puts a 36% cap on many consumer loan interest rates for active duty troops and their families.

“CFPB and the FTC have to be fully funded and staffed and doing their job,” said Jeremy Villanueva, associate legislative director of Paralyzed Veterans of America. “By the time a law comes out, people have already been victimized. CFPB is supposed to be out there ahead of that.”

Professional scammers are reactionary, Villanueva added, and will quickly find a way around new laws and regulations.

Officials at the CFPB and FTC did not respond to a request for comment as of publication.

The VA Office of Inspector General investigates fraud schemes that damage VA programs and diminish services provided to veterans, caregivers and survivors, David Case, VA deputy inspector general, said during the roundtable.

In fiscal 2025, their investigators pursued 150 criminal fraud cases, he added.

While job scams target anyone, military spouses may be especially vulnerable because of frequent moves, said Ally Armeson, executive director of Cybercrime Support Network.

“You become desperate, you’re looking for any job. … You fall into a job scam.”

Suddenly, there’s no job, and the spouse has paid money or lost information to a scammer, added Amerson, a veteran and military spouse.

“It’s incredibly challenging … to build a career as a military spouse and to find a profession that’s compatible with the military lifestyle,” said Eileen Huck, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association.

Huck added that some spouses are reeled in to multi-level marketing jobs, which may operate as illegal pyramid schemes. She also cited some used car dealers as entities that prey on young troops.

“They’re paying thousands on a credit card they’re not prepared for,” she said. “They don’t always have the financial expertise or knowledge before taking on obligations.”

Identity theft, romance scams, education scams, crypto scams and disability claims scams are among the many schemes that target the military community, advocates told lawmakers.

Armeson said her organization has a recovery group that attempts to help victims who have lost money, but restitution — if any — can take years, and victims only get back a fraction of what they lost.

The median amount victims have lost in crypto scams is $230,000, she said, citing organizational data. For romance scams, that number is $130,000.

In the veteran community, meanwhile, select schools often make false promises to secure troops’ guaranteed GI Bill money, said Will Hubbard, vice president for veterans and military policy at Veterans Education Success.

Seven of the top 10 schools with the highest GI Bill money accrual have experienced high volumes of student complaints, he said, and even faced state law enforcement actions.

“This is a systemic issue. We need to hit the root cause,” Hubbard said.

Tech companies should also be regulated, held accountable and forced to warn people about scams, said Gretchen Peters, founder and executive director of Alliance to Counter Crime Online.

Some social media platforms are able to detect individual scammers within about two weeks of setting up a new account, she added.

Chopra said it has become easy to extract personal information about troops with social media and other platforms. Data brokers also sell information about the military community to scammers, he added.

This enables them to figure out “who is really looking for romance, who is looking for a car, who is actually in financial distress,” he said.

With military moving season just around the corner, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday announced the establishment of the Personal Property Activity, elevating the importance of oversight of military household goods moves as a key mission. In a Jan. 21 memorandum, he stated the PPA will report to him through the under secretary for acquisition and sustainment.

The new group’s mission will be to “guarantee high quality, reliable and efficient household goods and vehicle shipment services for the more-than-300,000 warfighters worldwide who move somewhere every year,” Hegseth said.

If there are failures in the process, “our job is to correct it and make it right, not deny that it happened,” he added.

For decades, military families have experienced problems with missed pickups and deliveries, broken and lost household goods and a cumbersome claims process. In his video, Hegseth described examples of dressers missing a leg, couches looking like they had been dragged down the street and a service member’s family’s belongings that were packed upside down in boxes, spilling out and getting crushed.

“We listened to the concerns of our warriors,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth fired the director of the personal property program last summer, and directed the formation of a task force to find solutions. That task force is headed by Army Maj. Gen. Lance Curtis. Hegseth also named Curtis as the PPA’s first commander.

“When our warfighters are worried about their household goods, they aren’t focused on their mission,” Curtis said in an announcement of the reform. “We are ending that distraction. Mission readiness is non-negotiable.”

Over more than 30 years, defense officials have made several attempts to reform and improve the government’s handling of the household goods move process.

The most recent was a massive effort to privatize the management of the moves under the $6.2 billion Global Household Goods Contract. DOD terminated the contract in June, citing inadequacies by the contractor, HomeSafe Alliance.

Hegseth’s designation of PPA as a special activity removes the responsibility and oversight of the personal property program from the U.S. Transportation Command.

Here are some of the changes the task force has already implemented, according to PPA spokesman Army Maj. Matthew Visser:

• This year, service members moving during peak moving season — generally May to September — can start booking moves March 20 (if they have orders to move), one month earlier than booking started in previous years.
• There have been increases in per diem paid when a family is inconvenienced because of a mover’s delays. In addition to the service member, per diem is allowed for dependents — up to 75% of what meals and incidentals would be. The inconvenience claims are paid by the moving company.
• Personal property business rules have been updated to provide more competitive compensation for industry. After listening to movers’ concerns about lack of competitive rates, the task force identified this issue as a limiting factor in getting the best movers.
• A call center has been established for troops and families to communicate directly.

End to end

The PPA will oversee the personal property process end to end — from the time the service member books a shipment to the claims process, if required — Hegseth said.

The new group will also have capabilities that commands have, such as acquisition, legal and resource management.

“This is enduring,” said Visser. “No longer will the Defense Personal Property Program not receive the attention and oversight that’s needed. There will be a commander who will be responsive and responsible for the program.”

PPA will be headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, and there will be a “small growth” in the number of personnel, Visser said.

Hegseth directed that PPA be established by May 1 and fully operational within one year. The task force will continue to issue guidance for the Defense Personal Property Program until the PPA reaches initial operational capability, according to Hegseth’s memo.

The military services’ shipping offices will remain on installations, helping service members with their moves, but they will report to and be accountable to the PPA, instead of the individual service branch, Visser added.

Movers for America, a coalition of companies, moving professionals and independent owner-operators that move military families, issued a statement applauding Hegseth for “taking decisive action to fix the military’s Permanent Change of Station system and for elevating this mission to the highest levels of leadership within the Department of Defense.”

“Treating military moves as a priority and placing direct responsibility under the secretary sends a clear message that the readiness of service members and their families matters to America’s national security,” the group said.

In a Dec. 17 speech, President Donald Trump announced the payments, which he described as a “warrior dividend,“ would be made to 1.5 million troops, and said they were funded by revenue from tariffs and $2.9 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted last July. The Associated Press later reported that the payments weren’t being funded by tariffs.

Active-duty service members in pay grades O-6 and below, and eligible Reserve Component members, received the payments, which were described by the Pentagon as “supplemental basic allowance for housing payments.”

The IRS said in a release Friday that basic allowance for housing payments are “qualified military benefits,” and are specifically excluded from gross income in federal tax law, so they are not taxable.

“The tax-free Warrior Dividend places $1,776 directly in the hands of our warfighters and their families,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a Defense Department release Friday.

According to the IRS website, the agency will start accepting tax returns Jan. 26. The deadline to file federal tax returns for 2025, and to pay any taxes due, is April 15, although there are certain extensions available for service members, such as those stationed or deployed overseas.

Federal W-2 tax statements are scheduled to be available on DOD’s myPay site Wednesday for active-duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force. They are already available for active and Reserve Marine Corps; Reserve Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force members; and military retirees. But Defense Finance and Accounting Service officials note that system maintenance scheduled for Wednesday could affect account functionality between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Service members and their families have access to free military-specific tax preparation software through MilTax, as well as free one-on-one help by tax consultants, all provided through Military OneSource. Those eligible can file their federal return and up to five state returns for free. Active-duty service members, eligible family members, survivors and recent veterans up to 365 days after their separation or retirement date can file their taxes for free through this benefit.

Some installations may also offer tax preparation services through their military legal assistance offices, on a space-available basis.