The center – and two others like it in the pilot program under contract with the nonprofit Armed Services YMCA – are being opened with “lightning speed,” said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Christopher J. Mahoney, at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the center, expected to open by the end of March. The power of the partnership between Armed Services YMCA and the Defense Department helps empower military families, increasing readiness and resilience, he said.

The Arlington center encompasses the third floor of the St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church, located in a civilian area a few minutes from Fort Myer and the Pentagon. It was built out to meet the requirements of the Defense Department, including special ramps on either side of the building to facilitate the evacuation of mobile cribs and buggies.

The first center in the pilot program opened in Norfolk in May 2025 and is at 100% capacity.

The last of the three centers, opening in Virginia Beach this summer, will open just 28 months after the contract was signed. Military child development centers built in the military construction process can take upwards of five years before opening.

Between the National Capital Region and the Norfolk area, the waiting list has grown to about 2,000. The three centers will reduce that waiting list by more than 600, each with a capacity for 216 children. Families can request spots for their children in the centers at www.MilitaryChildCare.com, the portal for requesting all types of military child care. As of publication, 99 families had requested immediate spots at the Arlington center, with 260 requesting care in advance as they plan for the summer moving season.

More than 600 child care slots coming to these military families

Under the pilot program, parents pay the same fee they would at any DOD-run child development center. It’s based on total family income and the same for children of all ages. Armed Services YMCA bills DOD for the difference in what it costs them to provide the care.

DOD provides subsidies for child care in many settings, including their child development centers, where DOD typically covers about 50% of the cost of child care, with family fees covering the remainder.

Care is available for infants up to age 5, with 19 separate rooms featuring age-appropriate learning programs, toys and activities for each. Miniature stationary bikes for pre-schoolers and a sand table with colorful swimming fish and dinosaurs projected from above onto the sand are just two examples.

Among the many features are storage areas for car seats, as well as extra rooms that focus on gross motor skills that can also provide therapy for children.

Diapers, infant formula if requested, meals and snacks, and all other accoutrements, are provided at the child care centers.

The Arlington child development center will be licensed in Virginia and nationally accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Staff members undergo background checks and are trained with the same methods used in DOD child care centers. The center is inspected by local, state and DOD officials on a regular basis.

DOD runs the largest network of child development centers in the world, with 27,000 staff members caring for 172,000 military-connected children every year, said Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. That includes 739 child development and school-age centers, 148 youth and teen centers, and more than 800 family child care homes, he said.

Yet, he said, “We know there’s a gap in child care ... It’s partners like Armed Services YMCA that help close that gap,” Tata said.

DOD is trying to get the persistent 20% rate of spouse unemployment down to the national average of about 4%, he said. “Undergirding all of that is affordable, accessible child care.”

Over the years, DOD and the services have embarked on a number of efforts to increase the availability of child care. Information was unavailable from DOD officials about any other new initiatives underway to address child care shortages, or the number of children on waiting lists overall. There was no timeline available for when DOD expects to decide whether to expand these pilots to other areas.

”There’s no more important time for us to worry about child care than now," said retired Navy Vice Admiral William French, president and CEO of Armed Services YMCA. That 165-year-old nonprofit has a number of different programs focusing on young enlisted families at its 12 branches and 29 YMCA affiliates serving more than 104 military bases.

“But the one program that has the biggest impact on families is child care,” he said.

Some schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity already prohibit the use of cellphones in schools, but the policies aren’t consistent across DODEA, according to a Military Times spot check of some schools’ handbook policies.

The legislative provision requires DODEA to update existing regulations to “prohibit disruption in the learning environment by minimizing the use of such mobile devices to the greatest extent practicable, and to standardize such regulations across all DODEA schools.”

DODEA operates 161 schools in 11 foreign countries, seven states and two territories.

The proposed NDAA has been approved by the House and now awaits the Senate’s vote.

A common policy statement viewed in several schools’ current student handbooks was “Cellphones may be brought to school but must be turned off and stored in the backpack or locker during the school day. In cases of emergency, students may contact their parents by using the phone in the school office.”

Policies about cellphone use are clearly outlined in each school’s student handbook, said DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry. “With that guidance already in place, implementation is managed at the local school level based on community needs. Overall, cellphone use is not a systemic issue in DODEA,” she said. “Our focus remains on promoting responsible use through consistent citizenship and helping students make smart, informed choices in today’s connected world.”

States across the country are addressing students’ cellphone use. At least 32 states and the District of Columbia have required school districts to ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones, according to Education Week. There are ongoing concerns about distractions from learning.

When asked about students’ cellphone usage during a recent interview with Military Times, DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez cited her recent visit to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when she visited all six DODEA schools at that base.

“Honestly, I didn’t see a cellphone in any of the kids’ hands in any of the six schools. We have guidance and our students are great at following that guidance. We want kids engaged in their learning, and that’s what I saw,” she said.

Military school students' test scores lead the nation

Fort Campbell schools are part of the DODEA Americas region, where DODEA operates 50 schools in seven states, two countries and one territory. Their regional policy stated on the DODEA website is that cellphones must be turned off and stored in backpack or locker during the school day.

Others, like Edgren Middle High School at Misawa Air Base in Japan, have variations in their policies. Edgren allows students to use cellphones at their discretion during non-class time.

The new provision requires DODEA to update and standardize the regulation across all its schools no later than 180 days after the law is enacted.

“Cellphones don’t belong in the classroom, and students learn best when these distractions are removed,” said Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., in a statement about the inclusion of the provision in the negotiated agreement between House and Senate lawmakers. “This provision will ensure DODEA students are able to focus on what matters most: their education,” said Banks, who originally introduced the legislation in the Senate in June along with Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.

“Last month, I said we should ban cellphones in all K-12 schools in America, and now we have started down that path by banning cellphones in DoDEA classrooms,” said Slotkin, in an announcement in July about the Senate Armed Services Committee’s approval of the measure.

“With over 65,000 military children attending DoDEA schools worldwide, it’s critical students in DoDEA schools have an environment where they can focus, learn, and build meaningful relationships without the distraction of cellphones.”

Defense Commissary Agency officials have awarded a contract for the delivery to OnPoint, a delivery service previously known as ChowCall, said Todd Waldemar, founder and CEO of the company. The 70 commissaries that are part of the contract include eight pilot locations that have been offering the delivery service since 2022. Waldemar said the remaining 62 stores will be offering the service by Jan. 11.

“These 70 include the largest military markets, so I estimate that they represent over half of the total [U.S.] military population,” Waldemar said.

A spokesman for commissary officials did not immediately confirm the award of the contract, and it had not been published on Sam.gov by the time this article was published.

The contract includes the flexibility to expand to the remaining 108 commissaries in the United States. That expansion to all 178 commissaries is optional and is up to the commissary agency, Waldemar said.

“But we hope to get delivery in all markets as soon as we can. I think it would be realistic to see all markets have delivery by the summer,” he said, emphasizing that he does not speak for the commissary agency.

Commissary officials are not considering doorstep delivery for overseas commissaries because of overseas regulatory constraints.

The initial contract award is for $14 million, Waldemar said. Delivery will be available within a 20-mile radius of the commissaries.

Commissary officials have provided an online, curbside pickup service for customers for a number of years, and have been working to find a way to provide the delivery service, too.

“We need this. Our customers want and need this contract,” John Hall, director of the Defense Commissary Agency, told a meeting in March.

“I’m really excited about this,” he said at the time.

Under the system, customers order groceries online, which are retrieved by store employees who pick the items and hand the orders over to OnPoint. OnPoint then delivers the groceries to the customer’s location. The delivery can occur as soon as three hours after the order is submitted, depending on the location, because commissaries need the time to pack the order.

The commissary agency will not subsidize the delivery costs for customers. The fee will be $17.75 for those within 10 miles and $31.25 for those within 11 to 20 miles. The commissary agency does not have the flexibility in pricing delivery fees that commercial retailers do, because of their limitations in marking up prices, for example.

Customers pay the delivery fee in addition to the cost of their groceries, the usual 5% commissary surcharge, and any tip for the driver.

Nationwide doorstep delivery getting closer for commissary customers

OnPoint has been gearing up for the expansion, and is also hiring delivery drivers in all 70 areas, Waldemar said. About 80% of their employees are affiliated with the military, as spouses or veterans, for example. They are paid according to the wage scale under the Service Contract Act, which varies from area to area, and also receive fringe benefits, he said.

ChowCall/OnPoint has delivered more than 40,000 loads of groceries since beginning commissary deliveries in June 2022, Waldemar said.

Customers using the current delivery pilot program range from active-duty families to troops living in barracks, retirees and disabled veterans and people who want to get a head start on shopping or a bite to eat while at work. The service can be especially helpful to young families of troops who are deployed, such as spouses with young children, Waldemar said.

More than 50% of customers using the delivery are within 5 miles of their commissary, he said.

Those eligible for the commissary shopping benefit include active-duty, Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, Medal of Honor recipients and their authorized family members. Veterans with any Veterans Affairs Department-documented, service-connected disability rating are now eligible for commissary shopping, as well as Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war and those who have been approved and designated as the primary caregivers of eligible veterans by the VA.

Waldemar said he has received positive feedback from customers about the delivery, including some disabled veterans who said they depend on the commissary delivery. One veteran who cannot drive called it a lifeline, Waldemar said.

“Our mission is to really solve this problem, and really make a big impact across the whole military for quality of life,” Waldemar said. His company has made over 2 million deliveries of food and merchandise to military bases for 15 years, he said.

“The problem as we see it, is that the delivery of goods and services is either nonexistent or minimal in most military markets,” he said. So those who live and work on military bases do not have as many options as everyone else does, he said, partially because access to military bases is harder.

“We want to solve that problem by giving more options to the military, more options to the dependents in family housing, more options to the young service member who doesn’t have a vehicle, stuck in the barracks.

“My son, for example, just enlisted in the Air Force. He’s living in barracks. He told me the other day, totally unsolicited, ‘Dad I finally understand what your company does,’ because he’s on a base where all he can get is pizza from the gas station down the road.

“That’s it. We want to totally change that. We want to have options, we want to have convenience for everybody that’s on bases.”

Alabama

• Fort Rucker (formerly Fort Novosel)

Arizona

• Davis-Monthan AFB
• Fort Huachuca
• Luke AFB

California

• Camp Pendleton MCB
• Miramar MCAS
• San Diego NB
• Ord Military Community
• Travis AFB

Colorado

• Fort Carson
• Peterson SFB

Connecticut

• New London NSB

Florida

• Eglin AFB
• Hurlburt Field
• Jacksonville NAS
• MacDill AFB
• Patrick SFB
• Pensacola NAS

Georgia

• Fort Benning (formerly Fort Moore)
• Fort Gordon (formerly Fort Eisenhower)
• Fort Stewart

Hawaii

• Hickam JBPHH
• Kaneohe Bay MCBH
• Pearl Harbor JBPHH
• Schofield Barracks

Illinois

• Scott AFB
• Great Lakes NS

Kansas

• Fort Leavenworth
• Fort Riley

Kentucky

• Fort Campbell
• Fort Knox

Louisiana

• Fort Polk (formerly Fort Johnson)
• Barksdale AFB

Maryland

• Andrews AFB
• Fort Meade

Mississippi

• Keesler AFB

Missouri

• Fort Leonard Wood
• Whiteman AFB

Nebraska

• Offutt AFB

Nevada

• Nellis AFB

New Jersey

• McGuire AFB

New York

• Fort Drum
• West Point Military Academy

North Carolina

• Camp Lejeune MCB
• New River MCAS
• Fort Bragg North & South locations (formerly Fort Liberty North & South locations)

North Dakota

• Minot AFB

Ohio

• Wright Patterson AFB

Oklahoma

• Fort Sill
• Tinker AFB

Puerto Rico

• Fort Buchanan

South Carolina

• Shaw AFB

Texas

• Fort Bliss
• Randolph AFB
• Fort Sam Houston
• Lackland AFB
• Fort Hood-Clear Creek location (formerly Fort Cavazos-Clear Creek location)

Virginia

• Fort Eustis
• Langley AFB
• Little Creek JBLCFS
• Norfolk Naval Station
• Oceana NAS
• Fort Belvoir
• Fort Myer
• Fort Lee (formerly Fort Gregg Adams)
• Quantico MCB

Washington

• Fort Lewis Main
• McChord AFB
• Whidbey Island NAS

If you’d like to share your thoughts, email kjowers@militarytimes.com. Include your service branch, rank, age, marital status, family size, the name of your installation and phone number if we can contact you for more information. Let us know if it’s okay to use your name; anonymity can be granted upon request.

“We and you and soldiers and families can fix almost everything,” Driscoll said Tuesday during a forum on military families at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army.

“We just have to get human stupidity out of the way. You will be the ones to help us do that. You will be the ones on your bases and your communities pushing every single day to improve the foxhole. And we will try to do that, too.”

In a session that lasted over an hour, Driscoll, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer said they were working to improve quality-of-life measures for soldiers and their families. The improvements could help soldiers and military families focus on their physical and mental wellbeing, as well as help soldiers rest and recover from their primary mission of training to fight, they said.

Driscoll said the Army has let down families, whom he described as “the absolute backbone” of the Army.

“The civilian leadership for a very, very long time has not put the soldier first. They have not put the family first,” he said. “They have done all sorts of sinful acts that have harmed you.”

One example is cost, Driscoll said.

“We spend a lot of money on you and your families and the things we give you, but it just doesn’t go far enough,” he said. “We have incredibly passionate, wonderful people who are civilians and soldiers trying to work and care for you, but the system has for far too long just gotten in their way.”

The cost of building on Army bases is 68.5% more expensive than construction outside the fence line, Driscoll said. And the Army “pays double what everybody else does” for many items bought for bases.

He, George and Weimer “talk about this regularly. It enrages us and we’re doing everything we possibly can to break down this corrupt system,” Driscoll added.

Driscoll goes scorched earth on Army buying inertia

The leaders said the Army is focusing on ways to reduce unnecessary regulations and increase efficiency to improve programs that help soldiers and families.

Changes to child care, dining

Driscoll said he’s optimistic that within 90 to 120 days, the Army will set up a structure where spouses who want to work at child development centers can get approved one time, and then receive a “fast pass” to work at another CDC at their next duty station without having to start the process over. The change would help address the issue of worker shortages in CDCs, and it’s good for spouses and children, he said.

George said they’re rolling out a campus-style dining concept at Army dining facilities to five locations first, adding, “We want to go fast.” But federal legislation and regulations are hampering efforts to expand that concept to improve the Army dining halls, Driscoll said, and he hopes to get a waiver soon.

Most locations “should start to see hybrid versions or something that’s significantly better within the next 24 to 36 months,” he said.

When Driscoll and his family moved to Joint Base Myer — Henderson Hall, Virginia, earlier this year, he was excited about taking his children to the dining facility at Fort Myer for breakfast.

“It was awful,” he said. “It was not healthy, it was all processed.”

College-style dining facilities coming to Army bases

The conversation needs to be reversed about the quality-of-life amenities on installations, Weimer said.

“In this day and age, if we can’t train the way we’re going to be required to fight at home station — which includes barracks, because you ought to be able to take care of yourself and rest and recovery — then our home station is failing us,” he said.

“Our posts and installations exist so we can fight to win,” Weimer added. “They don’t exist so that we have a great place to live, awesome [child development centers] and discounted food at commissaries. We need all that stuff so that we can train and be really good at our jobs.”

However, he said, “I think for a long time, we had the conversations reversed.

“When you get the conversation right, now all of a sudden, the barracks make sense. The campus style dining and why we’d want to pay a little extra for quality makes sense.”

How technology can help

The leaders said the Army is looking at ways to use technology to reduce burdens on both soldiers and installations.

For example, Army leaders are considering how to use technology in some areas in order for bases to focus on things that humans must be responsible for, such as welcoming and onboarding people, Weimer said.

He acknowledged there is resistance to change at some locations. For example, he said, while there may be a QR code on permanent change of station (PCS) orders, some installations are still asking for 10 printed copies of those orders.

While Army leaders are working to address many of these issues, Driscoll told the audience, “where we’re still failing you, please let us know.”

“The system isn’t a biblical or divine or ordained system. It can be changed and molded and bent to the will of you and your families,” he said. “Please feel inspired, feel passionate, but just know the system is going to require your energy and effort to help us change it.”

Currently, Army reservists must be on Title 10 orders for more than 30 days to be eligible for financial assistance from the nonprofit. In January 2026, that 30-day requirement will be lifted.

“We’ll start helping Army Reserve full time regardless of how long they’ve been on orders,” said retired Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston, CEO of Army Emergency Relief, at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in Washington.

“I’m extremely proud of that,” he said.

Grinston said he recently received approval for the change from the Office of the Chief of Army Reserve and now plans to pursue a similar change for the Army National Guard. Guard members also have to be on Title 10 orders for more than 30 days to be eligible for assistance.

Reserve and Guard members sometimes face immediate financial difficulty when they are activated and leave their civilian jobs.

Grinston said he is also working to find a way to help soldiers’ spouses apply online for assistance. Soldiers can now apply online, but if they’re unable to because they’re deployed, for example, their spouse must have a special power of attorney and physically go to an AER office.

AER, which Grinston describes as “the only organization that is the Army’s nonprofit,” provides emergency financial assistance for eligible active duty and retired soldiers and their families and survivors for a variety of needs, ranging from emergency travel to food.

“If Tricare doesn’t pay for your bill, the first organization you should call is Army Emergency Relief,” Grinston said, as an example. AER provides assistance in the form of zero-interest loans or grants.

In the initial days following the federal government shutdown, troops’ financial anxiety was clear, Grinston said. When AER published information online about how to apply for its shutdown assistance, the organization received 15,000 requests for assistance within four days.

“About 3% of the Army came to us,” he said. “The financial stress is real,” he said.

He urged soldiers and families to seek assistance from AER, either online or through their local AER officer located in Army Community Services centers.

“If anybody tells you no, I want you to contact me,” he said, and provided his email address to the crowd.