Military.comhas an update on the massive fire that destroyed the household goods of 97 military families in the Suttgart, Germany area.
While the reimbursement process will likely be extremely long, as the article points out,Maj. Michael McGovern, judge advocate for the U.S. Army Garrison in Stuttgart, has said the families will get "100 percent" back.
He also said that everything is likely to go faster for those who have their own detailed inventories of their household goods and those who spend considerable amount of time going over the ones provided to them by the moving company. It will be easier for those families to account correctly for the value of what was lost.
I've never been one to make a detailed inventory of my own for a move, beyond a list and serial numbers of what I consider to be my "valuable" items (expensive electronics, my fancy bicycle, etc.). Even average military moves include some loss (I still have two dressers in little pieces sitting in my garage and never will see that lamp again) and, frequently, some gain (anyone missing a six-plus foot black steel pole? I have one in the attic that definitely does not belong to me).While fires like this are the exception to the rule, it nonetheless has me thinking twice about the wisdom of such inventory work before my next PCS, especially if it is overseas.
