7 CRINGEY PCS Stories as told by Military Families

PCS season is upon us. It’s July and we’re smack dab in the Middle of the biggest Military holiday south of Military appreciation month and the 4^thof July (Did I say south?…PCS Brain). Like it or not, if you’re a Military family then you’ll be picking up your life and moving away to start a new journey else- where. We’re basically nomads without the teepees. Cheers to a little laughter and much more crying, here are 7 CRINGY PCS stories as told by Military Families!

-Becca Glass

“Our second PCS as a family we were moving from Detroit, MI to Jacksonville, Fl. Our movers arrived and we had one upstairs, one on the main floor and one was supposed to load our truck. After a few hours, the lead packer noticed a huge pile of boxes outside of our truck and he went to yell at the loader and figure out why he was so behind. The loader was having a hard time trying to figure out how to load the truck because they have rules on how to load fragile items and everything said “Glass” on the boxes. He missed the introduction where we introduced our family and our last name is Glass. He thought everything we had was fragile and had spent hours trying to figure out how to load a semi full of fragile “glass.” Now every time we move we make sure to point out our last name so there is no confusion”.

-Johnny Cruz Buckingham creator of Military Crashpad

“I was PCSing from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO to Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, TX. I had my car loaded up with all my belongings, including my cat. I had purchased her in Colorado Springs so I had never been on a road trip with her before. Twenty minutes into our car ride I found out that she was horribly car sick after she threw up all over my back seat. After I stopped and cleaned up her vomit, we continued our road trip and I was hoping that was the last of her car sickness…it wasn’t. She threw up 4 more times before we rolled into Del Rio, TX. Just when I thought everything was coming to an end and we were going to get to our new house, I saw a McDonald’s and pulled through the drive-thru to get some lunch. When I pulled up to the window and went to hand the cashier money, my cat jumped from my lap and into the window of the McDonald’s drive-thru!!! Luckily the lady caught her and handed her back to me.”

-Ashley Marshall creator of Dandelion Families

“Several moves ago, we were assigned a driver who was relatively new to the DoD moving system. In an effort to speed up truck loading day, he hired an additional company to come in and help the company who already had been assigned to load.
It turns out that these two companies were rivals and did not get along. All day long insults were tossed around, complaints were freely given, and tension was generally lurking in the air.
As the Tetris game of loading the truck became more difficult, the companies blamed each other. Our neighbors had gathered in our front yard to say goodbye and we all watched as the companies started a massive argument about how to finish loading the truck over the music they had blaring in the yard.
This poor driver was in the middle trying to ease the tension before anyone got hurt. He reminded us of Michael Jackson in his classic video “Beat It!” All of us onlookers were captivated as we thought for certain a dance fight was about to erupt!
Luckily, everyone calmed down before things got too out of control. I will never forget the wide-eyed looks of my neighbors as they told us goodbye while watching the show that was happening on our front yard’!

-Mary Ellen Figueroa Williams

“We were traveling through Arizona and stopped for a picnic lunch at a road side rest area. Besides the poodle needed to go take care of her necessities. As I packed up the 2 older kids, the dog my husband, I climbed in checking seat belts. Suddenly hubby demands to know, where’s my son!? He was screaming for his lunch on the roof of the car! Lol

Needless to say, he was safe and sound after being breastfed. So, I didn’t lose our son David but almost lost my sanity”.

-Sheena Bailie Arting Creator of Dear Milfamily Podcast

“When we moved from San Antonio to New Mexico, the packers packed our dogs’ toys, food dishes, water bowls, Etc. in with our clean dishes. Then when we moved from New Mexico to Florida they moved our packing schedule from 2 days to 1. They were late coming to the house and refused to start anywhere else but the kitchen. So, I had to do a quick run through to get baby bottles, pacifiers, and sippy cups. This time, they packed the bottle warmer full of water in one of the boxes. The next day, they told us our shipment would be packed into two different trucks. Yikes”!

-Noralee Jones creator of Mrs. Navy Mama

“During our last PCS, we had to drive both cars across the country from Virginia to California. We flew my father-in-law to meet us so that he and my husband could take the two cars and I could stay behind with our two small children, who were 19 months and six weeks old at the time. I was going to fly out to California once they were there. Well they hit New Mexico and one of our cars completely died. Wouldn’t even turn over. So, my husband had to push this full vehicle to the closest car lot in New Mexico, which there was only one within 40 miles and then tried to trade the car in and ended up having to buy an overpriced car to get all our stuff to California. He actually contemplated leaving our stuff and just going with one car but we had everything from pack and plays too important documents. Needless to say, it was one of the most expensive PCS we’ve ever done”.

-Megan Harless creator of Military Spouse Chronicles

“Our move from Camp Atterbury, Indiana to Ft Leavenworth, Kansas had the potential to be our best move when our HHGs left our house. Having the upper hand of moving from a non- Military saturated area, we were able to schedule a door to door move. Little did we know it would be our worst! Strike 1- our HHGs arrived the night before and the crew didn’t want to stick around. They loaded everything into a warehouse for a new crew to load the next morning to make the date of delivery. Strike 2 – a giant jar of coconut oil I forgot I had that shouldn’t have been packed was packed. It melted and leaked all over the side of the love seat where the plastic wrap wasn’t covering it. Love seat ruined. Strike 3 – my son’s mattress was the last thing off the truck and covered in plastic. When they took the plastic off, half of it was soaking wet. The driver took a furniture pad off a dresser and tried to hand it to me telling me he could sleep on that instead! I lost it! We were able to claim the damages, I talked with the owner of the company, and things were eventually handled. Now our moves can only get better”!

What’s the most Cringey thing to ever happen during your PCS? Share your story below or email SierraRedmond95@gmail.comto be a part of Part 2!

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