FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- Whether a Soldier and Family is scheduled to PCS or retire, relocation can be exceedingly challenging and stressful. It is often said that the devil is in the details -- and when it comes to moving, those details encompass a variety of crucial elements such as personal property, finances and housing.
In order to provide a wealth of information in a convenient one-stop environment, Fort Campbell's Army Community Service teamed up with Morale, Welfare and Recreation to present the 2015 Soldier and Family Outbound Relocation Symposium. The event, held at the Family Resource Center Friday provided resource information at various kiosks and offered two separate sessions -- one for PCS moves and one for retirement/ETS relocations.
Connie Silk, Fort Campbell ACS relocation manager, said the idea for the symposium came after the Family Resiliency work group voiced concerns about the confusion and detail that often comes with moving to a new location.
"We learned that a lot of times, Soldiers don't get sent to briefings like Soldier For Life until after they've received orders or made the decision to retire," she said. "They don't get the information they need until they've made these decisions. Here we have the transition providers giving them information in a leisure atmosphere so they have all that information to make a decision before the orders are cut."
Silk said it was especially important to provide this informative symposium because of the large influx of young Soldiers and Families that come to Fort Campbell.
"A lot of these Soldiers are straight out of AIT -- they get married while they're here," she said. "They don't really know about what moving entitlements they have, or where to go to get the information to make decisions."
After signing up for door prizes and receiving clearing checklists to complete throughout the day, attendees were transferred through seven stations -- Army Community Service, Division Finance and ACS Financial Readiness, Housing: On and Off Post, Transportation: Personal Property and Passenger Travel, Soldier For Life and Retirement Services, Child, Youth and School Services and Tricare and Military OneSource.
"This is the first event of its kind that we've had here," said Silk. "We might think about doing it annually, if enough interest is generated. We always want to put this information out before the big PCS season, usually the May to July timeframe."
Brenda Francis, a management program assistant with the Fort Campbell transportation division, said that her office was present at the symposium to ensure that relocating Families had all of the information they needed for one of the most important aspects of a move -- the transition of personal property.
"We're here briefing Soldiers on their entitlements, telling them where our office is located and what they have to do in order to make their move successful," she said. "The earlier the better is the best advice, to ensure the dates you request [for moving services] are available. We're here to give them the basics, which I think will get them off to a good start."
The symposium was well met by attendees, including Sabrina Ortiz -- a member of a budding military Family.
"We're going to Fort Riley [Kansas], and this is our first PCS," she said. "My husband deployed as soon as he got out of AIT, so we just moved here and didn't really know much about the process."
Wanting to obtain more information before she and her husband embark on their first official PCS in May, she decided to visit the FRC and see what the symposium had to offer.
"There's housing, schooling, financial information," she said. "This is a good program and I've learned a lot in just the few stations I've been to so far."
Whether it is a PCS move or a retirement relocation, Silk encourages transitioning Soldiers and Families to contact Fort Campbell ACS at acsrelocation@fortcampbellmwr.com with any questions and concerns.
"ACS provides a lot of education," she said. "When it comes to relocation, we work with all of the service providers that help them transition."
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