“We haven’t lost your car. We just don’t know where it is.”

Military life means that troops are constantly shuffling around, and the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) at Scott AFB in Illinois, just outside of St. Louis, is supposed to take care of getting their personal property to where it needs to be.

That includes cars.  In particular, they have the jog of moving the personal vehicles for troops going back and forth to some overseas postings.  

According to WJLA, ABC 7, in Washington, DC, “International Auto Logistics got a $305 million contract from the Department of Defense in May. IAL started shipping cars just three months ago.”

Melanie Buckley, whose husband is in the Army, is baffled.  Her car was supposed to arrive at Ft. Belvoir, outside of Washington, DC, on August 4.  It still hasn’t arrived.

She followed up with IAL, and was not reassured.  “We haven’t lost your car. We just don’t know where it is.”

Melanie is not alone.  According to news reports, over 500 cars are MIA.

A press release was posted on the United States Transportation Command – the parent command of SDDC – website.  “The commander, U.S. Transportation Command, has directed site survey teams be sent to privately owned vehicle (POV) staging facilities next week. This is the latest in a series of steps to restore confidence of service members and their families in the POV shipping process.  The site survey teams will focus on verifying the location of service member vehicles in the POV supply chain, as well as observe and evaluate location capacity concerns.”

Are you kidding me? Restore confidence?  Verify location?  Observe and evaluate?

Our troops deserve better than this.