{"id":72565,"date":"2023-11-14T16:03:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T16:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/11\/14\/will-dods-plan-to-improve-quality-of-life-be-different-this-time\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:35:26","slug":"will-dods-plan-to-improve-quality-of-life-be-different-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/pay-benefits\/2023\/11\/14\/will-dods-plan-to-improve-quality-of-life-be-different-this-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Will DoD\u2019s plan to improve quality of life be different this time?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What can military and defense officials do to really address long-term problems like the condition of on-base <\/b>housing and barracks, shortages of child care, spouse unemployment, and the destruction or damage of property during a move to a new duty station?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last several decades, these problems have been persistent, and while there have been numerous efforts over the years to fix them, it sometimes seems like a game of <\/b>whac-a-mole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now there\u2019s a culture change happening in the Army, to include the demise of the practice of \u201cend-stating\u201d when it comes to quality of life, said the Army general responsible for many of those programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Gen. Charles Hamilton, commanding general of Army Materiel Command, put it in an interview with Military Times, \u201cend-stating\u201d refers to the final phase of an operation. According to the DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, end state is \u201cthe set of required conditions that defines achievement of the commander\u2019s objectives.\u201d But just because a project or building is finished, the responsibilities don\u2019t end for that project or building, said Hamilton, who is in charge of many quality-of-life programs, such as housing<\/a>, child care<\/a> and spouse employment<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Service members and families have faced problems for decades with a number of issues affecting quality of life, as the Government Accountability Office<\/a> and Military Times have been reporting through the years. These include problems such as mold in family housing <\/a>and barracks<\/a> and a <\/b>lack of timely maintenance; shortages of affordable, quality child care<\/a>; problems with broken or lost household goods<\/a>; military spouses\u2019 difficulty in finding employment; and inadequate dining facilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I warn my team about, what I\u2019m afraid of, is \u2026 we like to finish things, and then we go, okay, here\u2019s my line of effort. There\u2019s an end state. That\u2019s the problem. We \u2018end-state\u2019 it. And then the world moves past us,\u201d said Hamilton. \u201cWe say, \u2018Okay, that barracks is finished. Okay that project\u2019s done.\u2019 Well, no. It\u2019s finished for that one thing, but it\u2019s got to keep getting maintenance, it\u2019s got to keep getting sustainment, somebody\u2019s got to go check it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials are working on a culture change from the top down, Hamilton said, where those projects continue to evolve, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s \u2018Look guys, it doesn\u2019t have an end state on it. It\u2019s an evolution,\u2019\u201d said Hamilton, who enlisted in the Army in 1982 and has himself seen these issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t heard a military officer say that before, so kudos,\u201d said Kelly Hruska, government relations director of the National Military Family Association. \u201cI\u2019m glad he\u2019s articulating that,\u201d she said. As a Navy spouse of 29 years who has worked with the association since 2007, and other military family organizations before that, she has seen the continuing problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems like we\u2019re fighting the same things. There are days when I think we\u2019re making progress. But then I get a call from a family and I get discouraged again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quality of life is a big focus in the Army now, Hamilton said. \u201cWe spend a lot of time in this space \u2026 the secretary and the chief chair these meetings, with commanders in the field. \u2026 We\u2019re going location by location. So right there, that sends a clear message that this is a priority to the Army. They bring up everything. Child care. Dining Facilities. The meeting is called Quality of Life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact remains, however, that military leaders are only in their positions for two or three years, so priorities can change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders must be willing to play the \u201clong game\u201d for the sake of the people they serve \u201crather than what can be accomplished during their time in [the] seat,\u201d said Corie Weathers, wife of an Army chaplain, and a military clinical consultant. Her latest book, \u201cMilitary Culture Shift: The Impact of War, Money, and Generational Perspective on Morale, Retention, and Leadership,\u201d will be available Nov. 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathers also cautions that there are some quality-of-life issues that \u201cservice members and families have brought up for decades, generations even, that many are no longer willing to wait for without consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some of the services may be doing well with retention right now<\/a>, Weathers believes the military is on the verge of a retention crisis. \u201cIn order to begin the healing process, I believe the institution (ultimately leaders) will need to authentically show that they value the people over bureaucracy,\u201d she said, in an email response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur culture is at a tipping point where the community\u2019s expectations and frustration over issues that should have been resolved (or should have an expected end date) will be fully displayed as evergreen content online until leaders are held accountable,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is an immense amount of pressure on leaders who genuinely would like to make progress on systemic problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders must be able to \u201ccommunicate ongoing efforts to make progress on quality-of-life issues while simultaneously casting vision for realistic expectations and deadlines that can be used to hold the institution accountable,\u201d Weathers said. But leaders should avoid communicating in ways that sound like \u201ckicking the can down the road,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamilton explained that there have been improvements on this front in recent decades, \u201cbut as you know, the world changes pretty quickly around us. Whether it be barracks, housing, the expectations from families have certainly, and deservedly so, increased over time. They\u2019re holding us accountable, as they should.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, when it comes to housing he noted that <\/b>\u201cwith the dollars we have, we\u2019re going to continue to build, to renovate and modernize, and go after getting better housing for our families. … It all goes to readiness. And I won\u2019t come off that dime as long as I\u2019m the Army Materiel Command commander. We owe it to our families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the problem, of course, has to do with money, and the competition for limited amounts of dollars between quality-of-life programs and things like weapons systems. More and more, leaders like Hamilton have been saying that these programs that affect rank-and-file service members and their families directly affect military readiness, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\t