Coast Guard: Better Feedback Collection and Monitoring Could Improve Support for Duty Station Rotations

Fast Facts

The Coast Guard rotates about 40% of its active-duty service members to new duty stations each year. The rotations are often to remote or expensive areas with a large proportion of vacation rentals. Coast Guard officials told us that service members can face challenges during rotations such as few moving company options and reduced access to specialty health care.

However, the Coast Guard doesn't have a process for collecting service-wide feedback about duty station rotations. Routinely collecting this feedback could help the Coast Guard better understand rotation challenges and meet service member needs. We recommended doing this, and more.

Moving truck with boxes and furniture

Highlights

What GAO Found

The Coast Guard annually rotates over 40 percent of its 40,000 active-duty military personnel to new duty stations. Around 41 percent of Coast Guard units are in remote areas or high vacation rental areas (such as Cape Cod, Massachusetts), or both. U.S. Transportation Command, within the Department of Defense (DOD) administers the shipment and storage of service members' household goods, including for Coast Guard personnel, through the Defense Personal Property Program.

Officials from the nine Coast Guard districts told GAO that service members can experience key challenges when rotating to new duty stations. These challenges included limited moving company availability and access to specialized health care (see figure below). Officials told GAO that these challenges can have potential negative impacts on Coast Guard operations, personnel readiness, and retention. For example, delays in arrivals of newly assigned members to replace rotated members can increase workloads for those stationed at some units. Additionally, some newly assigned members may not be able to fully participate in mission-related duties before taking care of personal issues like obtaining dependent care. The Coast Guard has taken some actions to address these challenges, such as helping with researching available places to rent.

Duty Station Rotation Challenges and Potential Negative Impacts Identified by Coast Guard Field Unit Officials

While the Coast Guard has mechanisms that may collect information on challenges experienced by service members, they are not specifically intended to do so. For example, members may communicate feedback on rotations when preferencing new assignments. However, the Coast Guard does not have a process for collecting service-wide feedback about duty station rotations. Establishing a process to routinely collect and analyze such feedback would position the Coast Guard to better understand rotation challenges and their impact on operations, readiness, and retention, as well as meet service member needs.

Why GAO Did This Study

To conduct its missions, the Coast Guard assigns service members to numerous locations within and outside the continental U.S., including aboard ships.

A committee report accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 includes a provision for GAO to review the Coast Guard rotations process and how DOD supports that process. This report addresses the extent to which the Coast Guard identified challenges with rotations and has taken action to address them, among other things.

GAO analyzed Coast Guard and DOD policies and guidance on rotations. GAO also interviewed DOD and Coast Guard officials, including geographically dispersed field unit officials from all nine Coast Guard districts. The information GAO obtained from these interviews is not generalizable, but provided insights and context concerning how the Coast Guard monitors and addresses rotation challenges experienced by service members.

Recommendations

GAO is making two recommendations, including that the Coast Guard establish a process to routinely collect and analyze service-wide feedback on rotations. The Coast Guard agreed with the recommendation. DOD partially agreed with GAO's other recommendation. GAO maintains that the recommendation is warranted, as discussed in the report.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Defense	The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the TRANSCOM Commander analyzes the potential for non-response bias in the Customer Satisfaction Survey and, as necessary, incorporate accepted statistical methods to adjust for identified sources of bias into operating procedures. (Recommendation 1)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Defense	The Commandant of the Coast Guard should establish a process to routinely collect and analyze service-wide feedback on duty station rotations. (Recommendation 2)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.