It was my very FIRST PCS move and one of my most horrible military experiences to date!
Here’s a little back story. My husband and I got married in a courthouse in Atlanta, GA. He was on recruiting duty (which is very demanding) and we were thankful that they even gave him a couple hours to make me his wife. We said, “I do,” kissed, and he went back to work. That’s how we began our married life.
Base housing wasn’t an option, so I was still surrounded by the civilian life and had no one to fully indoctrinate me into the military lifestyle.
When it came time to relocate, it all fell on me. My husband had to leave early for training, but he made arrangements for the movers to come. My duties were simple: Facilitate the process and tell the movers what not to touch! This included only one item, my wedding dress.
Yes, I said wedding dress!
We decided to have a ceremony/going away party when we got home. Our next duty station was going to be Okinawa Japan so we wanted to have a vow renewal for family and friends to celebrate our union before we left the country.
Five minutes into the movers’ arrival, I should have known this experience was doomed!
When the two of them walked in, the older man immediately started complaining. And he never stopped. My guess is that he was too old for this type of work and needed to find something easier for this phase of his life. But he didn’t need to treat me like it was my fault.
Here is the entire experience in a nutshell…
- They ordered pizza and went through my refrigerator for drinks when they thought I was out of earshot. I walked in and stopped them. Some nerve.
- They dropped one of my husbands’ instruments down a flight of stairs.
- What they said would take four hours ended up being fourteen.
- The older man complained the entire time and treated me as if I’d done something wrong.
- They PACKED my wedding dress!
The last one was the WORST of it! I literally had my dress tucked in a corner AWAY from everything else. I showed it to both men and distinctly instructed them that it would be staying in the apartment.
After all the drama from the move I just wanted to get these guys out of my life. I didn’t check on my dress until the following morning.
I walked up to the cozy corner where I had it tucked away only to find nothing staring back at me. I couldn’t breathe as I ran to all the rooms, checking all the closets where I already knew I hadn’t placed it.
I was a mess for the next hour. I frantically called the company, and they took forever to locate it in their warehouse. They had to open each of our boxes to find it. The next bit of drama was whether or not it would be delivered in time for our ceremony. I still needed alterations!
But this story does have a happy ending. My dress made it in time and everything else went great.
I have had a couple unpleasant things to happen with moves since then, but the very first one took the cake (or the dress, I suppose!) It’s probably because I was so new to this, and I was alone.
What’s the worst PCS fail you’ve experienced?