I am Joe Gladden (Captain, USNR, retired), MOAA member. I just read, and appreciate, Col. Steve Strobridge’s article “Paying for the Privilege” article that underscores the woefully underfunded reimbursements for costs associated with PCS moves. Respectfully, I will submit that it overlooks the most glaring oversight in Military Family compensation, specifically assistance with Home Purchase and Home Selling.

Our company works with a large number of Military Families during their home purchases, sales, and PCS moves

We also work with a number of other Federal Agency employees such as CIA, FBI, NCIS, etc. during their relocations. As such, we are keenly aware of the dramatic differences in home owner benefits / assistance provided to these other federal employees compared to our uniformed military personnel. In most cases employees of the other agencies receive substantial reimbursement of their settlement costs and have a safety net (buyout) of sorts when they are forced to sell their home in a down market.

For those of us with a military background, this isn’t a huge revelation. This has always been the “elephant in the room” for Military Families. Everyone is aware of it, but no one seems willing to acknowledge this disparity, much less address it. This disparity is even more pronounced in the current housing market. On a daily basis, we see the great pain our Military Families are experiencing in this current down market. It forces them to make very hard, painful decisions such as foreclosure, leaving their families behind, or just leaving the military!

We believe our “career” Military Families, who make great sacrifices to serve our country, should have parity in benefits with their fellow Federal Employees. We believe they should not be shut out of the American Dream they defend. We believe that there are cost effective, perhaps cost neutral, ways to make this happen. Furthermore, we believe that developing such a program is a win for the economy and housing market in general, DOD, local base economies, local base governments through increased property tax bases, the American taxpayer, and an especially huge win for our deserving Military Families.

We believe a well constructed plan could be embraced by many trade organizations (National Association of Realtors, Mortgage Banker Association, National Builder’s Association), non-profits supporting Military Families (MOAA, American Legion, VFW), and federal, state, and local politicians. Imagine what a 30% increase in Military buyers would do to turn this market around…and how it would benefit the entire economy as a whole!

There are numerous good reasons to embrace this program and any opposition is trumped by the fact that it is clearly the “right thing to do” for our Military Families. I hope the Military Coalition will consider supporting parity for our Military Families.

Thank you.
Joe Gladden