As Army Maj. Gen. Lance G. Curtis stood in line at the Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, commissary to order a sandwich for lunch, he couldn't help but notice something odd.
"I'm standing next to an airman, and he's got his bike helmet, and he's got this huge backpack," Curtis said, adding that he asked the airman if he always carries everything with him.
The Air Force technical sergeant told Curtis that he was new to the base and had filled his backpack with newly purchased items he needed because he was having trouble accessing his household goods, which were still in temporary storage.
"As he explained, I'm literally writing his name and his phone number, his rank and his situation on the wrapper of my sandwich," Curtis said. "I got back to the operations center, and within 10 minutes, he got a phone call about his situation, and then I called him later that night to check up on him. We are now getting him the help that he needs."
As the commander of the newly created Permanent Change of Station Joint Task Force, Curtis was in a unique position to help the airman. Not every service member will receive a call from a two-star general to advocate on their behalf and help unlock the predicament that can sometimes arise from the movement of household goods. However, Curtis said he'd like every service member, family member and DOD civilian to be able to call a real person who has the authority to resolve issues. But ideally, he'd like them to have no problems at all.
The joint task force Curtis leads was established in May at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to improve how the Defense Department moves service members from one assignment to the next.
In the May 20, 2025, memorandum standing up the task force, Hegseth directed the U.S. Transportation Command to make various changes to the existing program that moves household goods. He noted that while the PCS process has "never been a great system," recent changes have made things worse.
"We know it's not working, and it's only getting worse," he said. "We've heard your concerns about contractor performance, quality and accountability. We hear you loud and clear, and that's why we're taking decisive action immediately."
The task force now has approximately 20 members and will grow to more than 50, Curtis said. The team also collaborates with members from the Transcom operations staff, representatives from each of the military services, including the Coast Guard, personnel from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and representatives from the commercial household goods moving industry.
On June 18, 2025, the department canceled the existing mechanism for conducting PCS moves, the Global Household Goods contract, also known as GHC. Curtis said the secretary gave him the authority to terminate the contract for cause because the contractor was not "meeting the expectations that we have within DOD for household goods moves." At its inception, Curtis said, the concept of the GHC program had merit. It was part of a transformation initiative to redo how the department moved service members from one duty location to another.
Curtis still stands behind the concept of GHC and what it aimed to accomplish, but the department was unhappy with the execution.
"At the end of the day, there were a lot of good things about GHC as a transformation initiative that really made the system better," he said. "The problem was the contractor was not meeting our expectations."
Before the GHC effort, which launched in April 2024, the department had been using a household goods shipment system called Tender of Service. The department had used the ToS process for a decade before GHC and reverted back to it after GHC was canceled.
Under ToS, Transcom handled the massive volume of vendors participating in household goods movements across the globe, and that became overwhelming.
GHC provided a single responsible party to meet the needs of service members involved in PCS moves and managed the vendors who conducted those moves.
Despite GHC being canceled, the department still has a busy moving season ahead of it. Approximately 300,000 individuals and families relocate each year, with about 120,000 of those moves occurring during "peak PCS season," which runs from mid-May to the end of September and during which DOD sees an increase of about 8.2% in moves.
Curtis said, despite these challenges, the department is confident it can move all those people using the ToS process it has used for years.
"We have the capacity within commercial industry to handle the peak season," he said. "I met with industry because I wanted assurances that capacity was available for the peak season. When we made the decision to do the termination for cause, it was deliberate. We had a good plan in place, and we knew the commercial industry could handle the additional load."
At the time the contract was canceled, Curtis said GHC was handling only about 20% of actual moves, with 80% still being managed through ToS.
Not every service member will choose to use Transcom or their local joint personal property office to conduct a move. Some individuals will find a mover on their own and later seek reimbursement as part of a personally procured move.
For those members, the department will now offer reimbursement up to 100% of the rate calculated for a move under the ToS system and up to 130% of the cost of a move as calculated by GHC, Curtis said.
"That incentive for our service members is the right answer for them," he said. "It allows them to conduct the move if they want to do it on their own and to not lose money. That is a huge win for our service members."
Right now, Curtis said, he has seen a drop-off in PPMs, but he thinks that will change now that service members know they won't lose money by conducting a move themselves.
Curtis said DOD will work through this year's peak moving season, but the goal of the task force is to ensure the department provides the highest quality moving services for service members, civilian employees and their families.
The task force, Curtis said, must build an efficient system to ensure service members will always, to the extent possible, have the best possible moving experience.
"We're working on trust, timeliness and accountability," he said.
Speaking on those topics, Curtis said individual and family possessions represent memories and mementos from their lives before and during military service, and the department must ensure those treasures are moved to their final destination safely and intact. He added that household pickups and deliveries must occur as scheduled.
"All of us want the pickups and the deliveries to be high quality, and I'm holding the vendors accountable," he said. "Their pickup and delivery must be in accordance with the prearranged timelines. I'm not ignorant of the fact that every single move that we conduct is not going to go perfectly, but our mindset is we want to beat things down to zero."
Curtis said the department aims to reach a point where bad moves are extremely rare.
Finally, touching on accountability, Curtis said it will be a part of everything the task force does going forward as it works to improve the moving experience.
"Our contracts have to have clearly defined standards," he said. "They have to have oversight responsibilities and there have to be consequences tied to the accountability."
The general noted that to fully meet the secretary's intent, significant changes are needed in how the department conducts the movement of household goods.
"We are operationalizing the way we [move] household goods," Curtis said. "We have a common operating picture each day that we are looking at to find out where the friction points are across the United States, and we are removing obstacles for the benefit of the service members, their families and our Department of Defense civilians."
The task force is setting up a 24/7 call center that will enable service members to call whenever they encounter issues with their move. Curtis said the center is scheduled to open in July.
"We want to ensure that they can talk to an actual person who can remove obstacles for them," he said, adding that the call center will be obligated to call the service member back with the way forward to resolve their problems.
Curtis said he owes Hegseth options later this year for how the DOD will improve military moves in the future, but before that happens, he said, he'll be talking with the services, the personal property offices and with industry. However, he said he also wants to hear from the service members and families.
"I would really appreciate getting feedback from the field — from our family members, from our service members and from our DOD civilians — on things that they know are problems and they would like to see us address," he said. "That helps us ensure that we are really meeting the needs of the people who matter the most."