Currently, parents don’t have access to a child’s medical records from the time they turn 13, “based on current departmental policy,” Lt. Gen. Mary K. Izaguirre said Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army.

In addition, children don’t have ID cards to sign in to the Defense Enrollment Eligibility System (DEERS), she said. Children must be at least 18 to log in to the system.

The question of parents’ access came up during a family forum at AUSA. Izaguirre said the issue is one of her husband’s favorite topics, and “I share his passion for it,” she said.

For now, parents must go to the patient administration offices at their military treatment facilities and have their teenage children sign consent forms to give parents permission for access to their medical records.

“That’s a barrier,” Izaguirre said, adding that “we’ve been working with the [Defense Health Agency], and the [Department of Health and Human Services]” to address the hurdle.

The issue stems from privacy laws and has come up in various settings with military families.

Researchers with the organization Feedback were “surprised at how often this came up, not just one parent at one base,” said Erin Domagola, the research director at the organization. Feedback analyzed comments received in the Federal Register, following a Defense Department solicitation in March for comments and suggestions from military families on how DoD could improve their quality of life.

Feedback uses applied anthropology, behavioral science and digital ethnography to understand what people experience and why.

The company independently analyzed Federal Register military family comments from 2024 to 2026 about quality of life. While there were a relatively small number of comments overall —117 in 2026 — it does provide a window into some of the concerns and suggestions, the researchers said.

The Social Security Administration’s COLA announcement Wednesday sets the rate of increase for about 72 million Social Security beneficiaries, but also for military retirees and people receiving veterans benefits. The increase goes into effect in January and is 0.8% higher than the 2.8% COLA in 2026.

It’s the biggest increase in four years.

Officials estimate that on average, the monthly Social Security benefit will increase by $75.

As an example, a military retiree who receives $2,500 in retired pay will see a COLA increase of about $90 per month.

For a veteran receiving $1,500 per month in benefits, the increase would be about $54 in 2027.

In 2024, Congress passed legislation that ties increases in veterans’ benefits to the rate of Social Security increases. The cost-of-living increase applies to disability compensation, clothing allowances and dependency and indemnity benefits, as well as some other Department of Veterans Affairs assistance programs.

The COLA is designed to ensure benefits keep pace with inflation. The calculation is based on the Consumer Price Index, which tracks the cost of a wide range of items and calculates inflation and changes in the cost of living.

The 2026 COLA was 2.8%, a few ticks higher than the 2025 COLA of 2.5%.

Those with personal “my Social Security” accounts can view their COLA notice online starting in late November, a few weeks earlier than those who receive paper notices in the mail, officials said.

The Defense Health Agency announced in mid-September that it was switching from the older login process, DS Logon, to a new program called myAuth for the MHS Genesis system.

DS Logon required lengthy passwords that had to be changed frequently, while myAuth promised a more “user-friendly experience” and improved security, according to DHA.

Following the transition, however, some patients have been unable to access their own medical records. Sponsors must grant access permission to their spouses and dependents, and in some cases, dependent children aren’t showing up on either parent’s accounts.

“Just stop changing things. Every time one system finally starts working and everyone gets used to it, you switch it up. Tricare online was fine. Genesis was fine,” an Army spouse wrote on Tricare’s Facebook page.

In response, DHA announced Sept. 25 that the patient portal would remain “fully accessible via DS Logon.”

But beneficiaries say when they use the old DS Logon system, they are redirected to the myAuth login page and still cannot access family records.

“I can log in and see all my stuff. I can send out messages and receive them … but nothing for my kids,” a military spouse said in a direct message to Military Times. “To message their doctor, I have to send a message through my name and put in the subject my child’s name.”

DHA spokeswoman Brenda Campbell said Thursday that DHA is working with the Defense Manpower Data Center to resolve the issues. DMDC manages the myAuth system and is responsible for the transition from DS Logon, she said.

“MyAuth is a new digital login that replaces DS Logon for accessing [Defense Department] websites and applications, like the MHS GENESIS Patient Portal. We are aware of the issues associated with the transition and are providing that feedback to DMDC to ensure appropriate fixes are applied,” Campbell said.

According to DHA, MyAuth will provide more ways to log in to the MHS Patient Portal, allow for use of a Common Access Card, verification through the Okta mobile app and other authentication choices.

It also has a simpler interface that is more user-friendly, DHA officials added.

“The switch to myAuth means a simpler, more secure experience in MHS Genesis Patient Portal,” they said.

Another change to the Defense Department’s information technology systems will affect Military Health System patients and Tricare beneficiaries this weekend: a planned outage of the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, or DEERS, as it transitions to a cloud-based system.

DEERS will be offline from 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, Oct. 9, to Sunday, Oct. 11, although the Pentagon has not specified a time.

During the outage, beneficiaries won’t be able to update their DEERS records and pharmacies and healthcare providers may not be able to check a patient’s Tricare eligibility.

The DEERS database contains information about military personnel, retirees, family members and civilian employees.

Officials at Fort Bragg and Corvias, the privatized housing company that operates the installation’s housing, recently marked the renovation of the first of 21 historic homes that are ready for military families. They were built between 1928 and 1939, and feature elements including stucco walls, copper gutters, hardwood floors and basements.

Fort Bragg has 230 homes that were built before 1940, and all are designated as historic. But these aren’t even the oldest of Army housing. There are 867 houses built before 1919, located on 19 other Army installations in 13 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Army.

At Fort Bragg, about 2,300 of the base’s 6,104 homes were built before 1960, officials said.

The Army manages the largest inventory of historic housing in the federal government, with more than 30,000 historic homes that are more than 50 years old. These homes are subject to the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act, according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

That federal agency’s mission is to promote the preservation of America’s historic places and has worked with the Army and the other services as they prepare plans to renovate these houses, making sure they preserve the historic character while meeting the needs of families.

“These residences are an important part of Fort Bragg’s history, but their greatest value is continuing to serve soldiers and families who live in these homes,” said Col. Luke Wittmer, the installation’s garrison commander, in an announcement. “This renovation preserves history while ensuring we continue to meet the needs of today’s families.”

Historic homes have long been a challenge to preserve and maintain for military families, with a variety of issues such as lead paint and asbestos, which are both hazardous and costly to remediate.

Most of the military’s historic homes were included in the inventory of military housing that was turned over to private companies to operate and maintain, starting in the early 2000s.

According to the Army, historic homes currently take an average of 18 days to prepare between occupants, compared to 15 days for a standard home. The average cost is $4,342, compared to $3,681 for a standard home.

Fort Bragg was designated a permanent Army post in 1922, and construction of the first permanent party officers’ family quarters along Alexander and Hunt streets began in 1927, officials said. Construction of noncommissioned officer family housing began in 1928.

The planned outage is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, Oct. 9, and end Sunday, Oct. 11. As of Thursday, information was not available about what specific time the outage is expected to end on Sunday.

During the outage, beneficiaries won’t be able to make any updates to their DEERS record. Pharmacies and healthcare providers may not be able to check a patient’s Tricare eligibility.

Officials note that there are other benefits systems that rely on DEERS, and the outage may affect those systems, too.

The Defense Manpower Data Center is updating DEERS, and it will be moving to a new cloud environment.

“The Defense Health Agency is working closely with DMDC during this time,” officials said in an announcement about the planned outage. “The goal is to keep any disruption as small as possible.”

DEERS is a database of information about military personnel, Defense Department and military service civilians and their family members. To get Tricare coverage, beneficiaries must be registered in DEERS.

Beneficiaries who need to make changes, or who need to check their information in DEERS, should do so before the weekend by visiting milconnect before 9 p.m. Friday.

This year’s Tricare Open Season begins Nov. 9 and ends Dec. 8. During that time, beneficiaries can enroll in or change their health plan for the next year. Changes made during open season will take effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Starting in November, veterans won’t have to pay insurance premiums for three months, ending in January 2027, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs announcement.

All told, the break is expected to save veterans nearly $150 million in insurance payments, officials said.

On average, veterans pay about $110 a month for VGLI coverage. VGLI insurance premiums vary and increase every five years as veterans age. Payments range from $30 a month for the maximum $500,000 in insurance to $2,200 a month for the maximum coverage for veterans 80 and older.

All veterans with VGLI policies are eligible for the premium holiday if they have a current policy that hasn’t lapsed or been cancelled due to non-payment of premiums.

Eligible veterans don’t have to take any action. They will be automatically exempted from the three months of premium payments and will be notified by letter or email within the coming weeks if they are eligible. Many veterans pay by allotment from military retired pay, or by withdrawals from their bank account.

Those veterans who paid in advance can either receive credit on their policies for three months or ask for refunds, officials said.

Officials said the program’s financial performance has been “incredibly strong,” making the premium holiday possible.

“VA is all about making life better and more affordable for veterans, and this premium holiday will help the men and women who served this nation keep more of their hard-earned money,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins in the announcement about the initiative.

Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance coverage doesn’t automatically carry over after leaving the military. Everyone leaving the military with SGLI coverage qualifies to sign up for VGLI, with certain time limits.

However, VGLI is more expensive than SGLI, so experts advise shopping around for other life insurance options. One advantage of VGLI is that veterans who sign up within 240 days of leaving the military don’t need to prove they’re in good health.

The class action, filed before the Merit Systems Protection Board, pursues compensation for five current and former federal civilian employees who also serve in the military. The suit is against the Departments of Defense, Justice and Veterans Affairs, according to the motion shared with Military Times.

The suit says the reservists served on qualifying active duty during a declared national emergency and were not paid the difference between their civilian salary and military pay.

Those listed in the class action are: Army Reserve Capt. Lacy Jaudon, Army Reserve Lt. Col. Shahara Timbrook, Army reservist Shea Matthew Gibbons, Navy reservist Bryce Miller, and Army Reserve Capt. John Mezzanotte.

Some of the reservists served on active duty dating back to 2016, while two are still under orders through Sept. 30.

Reservist differential pay was enacted by Congress in 2009 to protect eligible federal civilian employees who are members of the Reserve or National Guard from taking a pay cut when called to active duty during a declared national emergency.

Following that passage, the Office of Personnel Management restricted the types of active-duty service that are eligible for differential pay.

The class action comes over a year after the Supreme Court ruled in Feliciano v. Department of Transportation that federal employees called to active-duty service are entitled to such pay, dismissing OPM’s guidance that it has to be related to a national emergency.

“The Supreme Court could not have been clearer: These men and women earned this pay, and the law requires the government to make them whole,” Andrew Tutt, who argued Feliciano v. DoT and is now the reservists’ counsel, said in the statement. “They held up their end of the bargain. It is long past time for the government to hold up its own.”

The suit asserts that the government told the Supreme Court it would change its guidance twice but has not yet done so. The delay prompted multiple lawsuits, including one filed in August by an Army reservist and Department of Veterans Affairs attorney Marcus Colicelli against OPM.

The new suit also aims to recover compensation from an existing class action, Platero v. United States, which is being argued before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. That lawsuit argues that USERRA claims brought before the Merit Systems Protection Board can have no statute of limitations.

The failure of troops to provide phone numbers for spouses in the Air Force Personnel Accountability and Assessment System, however, can carry dire consequences. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Douglas Scheiss recalled an incident in which he and his wife, Debbie, needed to reach a spouse whose husband had died in Syria.

But when they called the number on file, the phone simply rang and rang. It was the number for the airman’s cell phone.

“The number we were calling [was wrong] because he didn’t want his wife’s number to be on something,” Scheiss said during a forum on military families at the Air & Space Forces Association annual conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Wednesday. “We are the most connected people in the world … but when the time is needed to contact people … don’t take away that ability for a spouse to be connected.”

The Air Force is launching an effort to improve the service’s ability to collect accurate contact information for spouses and provide it to units’ Key Support Program, the Air Force’s volunteer portion of a command’s family readiness efforts similar to Navy ombudsmen or Marine Corps family readiness volunteers.

Key Support Liaisons facilitate communications between commands and families — and often serve as the social foundation for military families when units are deployed.

Volunteers are required to keep phone numbers and other personal information confidential under the Privacy Act, but the unit phone trees they are provided are only as good as the information in AFPAAS, explained Cindy Wilsbach, wife of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach.

“We’ve asked them to do this and [Key Support Liaisons] have stood up and said they will, yet we haven’t equipped them by giving them the contact information for our families,” Cindy Wilsbach said.

“When this thing kicked off in February,” she said, referring to the Iran war, “I heard from people around the globe … ‘Cindy, their spouse is gone, and this spouse has heard from no one. No one has contacted her, no one has reached out to her.’ It wasn’t just one or two people. I heard it from a lot of people.”

The service has started distributing cards to unit leaders that explain how leaders — most likely unit first sergeants — can pull unit personnel lists from AFPAAS and provide a comprehensive recall roster to their Key Support Liaison.

The four-step effort involves identifying the need, collecting the contact information, maintaining a roster and providing it to the liaison on a regular basis.

The cards were created by Doniel Wolfe, a military family life counselor who holds a doctorate in counseling and is married to Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe.

Collecting and distributing accurate information on family contacts may sound simple, but it’s been a problem “for a very long time,” Cindy Wilsbach said.

“We’ve heard it at every single base we’ve visited … so we’re hoping, with Legal’s blessing, that this is the way forward, that we will arm KSLs with the power to actually do what we’ve asked them to do,” she said.

Connection with the command, as well as one another, is a cornerstone of readiness, Cindy Wilsbach added. She said the liaisons are a vital resource for making initial contact with new families, sustaining families when units are deployed and providing support in emergencies.

The senior leaders and their spouses urged personnel attending the conference to keep their spouses’ contact information updated in AFPAAS, with Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna saying it’s the responsibility of leadership to make sure that spouses feel included.

“How many spouses … are maybe just waiting for someone to reach out to them. The worst that could happen is you send a note or make a phone call, send a text or an email, and you don’t get an answer back … but this is where leadership comes in — you got in there, and you got to take care,” Bentivegna said.

A new GAO review found gaps at multiple stages of the Department of Defense Education Activity’s process for identifying and supporting students with specific learning disabilities, including screening, referrals, evaluations and instruction. GAO officials said those gaps can compound, affecting when students receive help and the quality of the services they receive.

“Those are gaps that, when you add them up, they multiply, and they have a compounding effect on when and the quality of services that students receive,” said Jennifer Gregory, a GAO assistant director who oversees part of the agency’s special education work.

About 5% of DODEA’s roughly 60,000 full-time K-12 students had an identified specific learning disability during the 2024-25 school year, and the number of students identified with such disabilities increased 29% from 2018-19 through 2024-25, according to the latest GAO report. About 10% of DODEA students received strategic instruction, which provides short-term, small-group academic support.

Specific learning disabilities include disorders such as dyslexia and dyscalculia that affect understanding language or performing mathematical calculations.

GAO examined DODEA schools in five of the agency’s nine districts, covering districts that serve 63% of DODEA students with identified specific learning disabilities. Investigators visited 11 schools and conducted 47 group interviews with teachers, administrators and other stakeholders. They also administered an opt-in online questionnaire to parents of DODEA students with specific learning disabilities.

Among the parents who responded to GAO’s questionnaire, 82 of 121 said the limited availability of DODEA resources to assess students, such as screening tools, was a challenge.

GAO found that at nine of the 11 schools, staff said they needed more or better screening tools to identify students who may need additional literacy or math support or special education. DODEA’s screening tools did not directly assess foundational phonics skills among elementary school students and were not available to all students.

GAO said those limitations make it difficult to identify students who are behind for their grade level, which is particularly important given DODEA’s highly mobile population. DODEA officials told GAO in July that the agency had procured universal screening tools for all grades and planned to begin administering them in late 2026.

GAO also found that DODEA cannot currently ensure that all students identified as needing additional literacy or math support to meet grade-level expectations receive the appropriate support.

At the high school level, some of that assistance is provided through strategic instruction classes, which are electives, according to GAO. That means a student identified as needing additional help may not necessarily receive it, said Jacqueline Nowicki, the GAO director who oversees the agency’s K-12 education work.

“Once it is determined that a kiddo does need support, there is not a way right now that DODEA can ensure that kids who have been identified for this kind of support actually get it,” Nowicki said.

GAO recommended that DODEA ensure all students identified as eligible for additional literacy or math support receive the necessary instruction. The recommendation remains open.

The review also found problems with referrals and evaluations.

GAO recommended that DODEA analyze why Student Support Teams reject referrals for students who may benefit from additional literacy and math support and identify special-education referrals rejected because of poor-quality or incomplete information.

In the 2024-25 school year, DODEA reported that 12% of special-education evaluations were not completed promptly, according to GAO. Ten of the 11 schools GAO visited identified timely identification and evaluation as a challenge. GAO recommended that DODEA analyze factors within its control that contribute to delays in the evaluation process.

At all 11 schools GAO visited, staff cited obstacles to helping students meet literacy and math goals, including limited access to student data and professional learning that did not always align with teachers’ roles. Of 44 strategic-instruction and special education teachers interviewed by GAO, 32 rated their professional-learning opportunities as “bad” or “very bad.”

Teachers were routinely asked to evaluate training they had already received but did not have a clearly understood opportunity to identify the training they needed going forward, Nowicki said.

GAO also found that teachers did not always receive the professional learning needed to use DODEA’s specialized reading interventions as intended.

GAO did not formally audit the transfer of individualized education programs during permanent changes of station as part of this review. But Nowicki said the issue has repeatedly surfaced in GAO’s broader work with DODEA and military families.

Parents have told GAO that records sometimes did not arrive at a child’s new school. Other parents said they hand-carried records but were unsure where to deliver them, she said. GAO has also heard from parents who said receiving schools did not immediately implement an existing IEP.

Nowicki said missing or delayed records can delay services or leave educators trying to reconstruct a child’s needs and prior services.

“It is not uncommon for parents to tell us, you know, I transferred to DODEA School from ABC Public School. My files didn’t show up,” Nowicki said. “Or my files I brought them with me and hand carried them and didn’t know who or couldn’t find who to give them to.”

School liaison officers can help military families coordinate so-called “warm handoffs” between schools, Nowicki said. But not every school has a liaison officer, and some parents do not know the service is available.

The latest review contains eight recommendations to the Defense Department, addressing screening, referrals, evaluation delays, teacher training and access to student data, as well as ensuring students identified as needing additional literacy or math support actually receive it.

“We went suddenly from business attire to very casual, and that happened overnight, so we had to adjust very quickly to that shift,” he said during a recent interview with Military Times.

Even now, customers haven’t returned completely to previous norms, he said. There have been some significant shifts in tastes, and fashion needs have focused more on beauty products and footwear.

“We’re meeting the needs of the customer, as customers transition to a different focus, both in apparel and in other categories,” Shull said.

Shull, who retired in June, is the longest-serving director in AAFES’ 131-year history and the first civilian to serve in that position. He’s an Army veteran and came into the job with a variety of commercial retail experience, where his primary focus was improving the customer experience.

AAFES and all the services’ exchange systems are open to eligible military customers of all branches of service.

In his 14-year tenure, Shull fought to extend the online exchange benefit to all honorably discharged veterans; reduced AAFES’ debt from $2.4 billion to zero; increased customer satisfaction to 95%; fought off efforts to privatize or consolidate military stores; and weathered the COVID-19 pandemic to keep stores open and customers safe, among other accomplishments.

“Tom Shull spent his career working on behalf of service members and military families,” said Eileen Huck, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association. “He recognized the importance of the exchange to military families, especially those stationed overseas, and worked tirelessly to ensure that military families had access to essential products at reasonable prices.”

When he came aboard in 2012, Shull changed AAFES’ heavy focus on private-label brands and included more choices in name brands in a variety of areas.

“We should have focused on the fact that our service members want to receive the same respect and opportunities that their counterparts do off the installation,” Shull said, noting that he made decisions based on data.

The agency pivoted to expand choices of name brands like Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren, and it focused on providing new movies. It showed first-run movie premieres in deployed areas and offered name-brand eateries on installations, he said.

The exchanges provide these products and services at varying discounts, but purchases are also tax-free. AAFES has been expanding to partnerships with companies like Home Depot and Bass Pro Shops.

AAFES still provides a robust selection of private-label options, which are generally cheaper.

Primary focus: young troops and families

AAFES’ core customers are young, active-duty service members and their families, Shull said.

“We do everything we can to provide for their needs,” he said.

Their efforts have paid off: In 2025, AAFES’ customer satisfaction rating was 95%, up two points from 2024. Ten years ago, the rating was 68%.

Part of meeting the needs of the military community has been expanding their customer base.

“His greatest legacy was expanding the benefit to a larger veteran group,” said Steve Rossetti, president of the American Logistics Association, representing companies that sell products and services to the military resale community.

Under Shull’s leadership, AAFES’ customer base has more than doubled, from 12 million to 30 million. It expanded its online shopping benefit to all veterans who served honorably.

“It was one of those things that I was so honored to be a part of,” Shull said. “It took us a long time,” he said, but it is a meaningful benefit for veterans to be able to shop online tax-free.

Since Veterans Day 2017, when they became eligible, more than 1 million veterans have created accounts on ShopMyExchange.com, spending $700 million. Previously, veterans who didn’t retire from the military generally didn’t have online exchange shopping privileges.

In addition, since Jan 1, 2020, all veterans with service-connected disability ratings from 0% to 100% can shop in-store at military exchanges, and more than 600,000 have used their new benefit in AAFES stores.

“Our customer really values their lifelong connection to the military community, and that really is apparent, not just in their gratitude for being able to receive this benefit, but in terms of sales and earnings that we can then dedicate to active duty service members and their families,” Shull said. “Veterans and even disabled veterans pay forward to support active duty.”

AAFES has returned about $3.4 billion in dividends out of profits to the military community to support quality of life since 2012.

“That has become really more important than ever, especially as during certain times with certain administrations there has been a shortage of appropriated funds to support quality of life,” Shull said.

Looking back on his time as director, Shull’s biggest challenge was navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The AAFES team aggressively acquired personal protective equipment, such as masks, gloves and acrylic protective screens, and it balanced the safety of employees and customers in a great time of uncertainty, while continuing with the ever-important mission to provide needed products to military customers.

The exchanges first experienced the effects of the pandemic in the Pacific, then in Europe before the disease moved to the continental United States.

Throughout his tenure, Shull led the effort to shore up AAFES’ financial underpinnings. The agency reduced its debt load by $2.4 billion, down to zero, giving AAFES more flexibility and capacity to move quickly to fund operations in various circumstances.

The team has aggressively reduced its overhead costs. Without furloughs or layoffs, it reduced the number of personnel by 40%, from 40,000 to 24,000, through attrition.

“We pay our associates well and executives well,” he said, but they don’t exist to pay high bonuses or to give extraordinary dividends to shareholders. “We exist to serve soldiers, airmen, guardians, Marines, sailors and their families,” Shull said.

A ‘sacrosanct’ benefit

In his years at AAFES, Shull has come to describe the military resale system as “sacrosanct.”

“I feel that passionately,” he said, “because it’s such an important benefit.”

He’s weathered multiple efforts, mostly within the Defense Department, to privatize, consolidate, or otherwise drastically change the commissary and exchange benefits.

“There’s always been a very high reluctance by retailers if they were interested in acquiring the stores, to support service members down range, among other things,” he said.

AAFES has more than 300 operations supporting deployed troops in Southwest Asia, Eastern Europe, the Pacific and Africa.

“We have 24 mobile field exchanges, which aren’t inexpensive, 53-foot retail trailers that rapidly deploy to disaster zones, contingency locations, training exercises, without any taxpayer dollars,” he said. “A commercial retailer would shutter exchange facilities in remote and isolated locations, because there would be no financial justification for keeping them open.”

In addition, there would be no financial incentive for private sector stores to sell military clothing items at cost; or to serve the 3.5 million school lunches AAFES serves at DoD schools overseas each year at cost; or to contribute profits to installations’ quality of life programs.

Commercial entities might not put the same emphasis on hiring military spouses and veterans that AAFES does, which has resulted in hiring 68,000 since 2013, he said. Not all of those are still within the AAFES ranks, but they do have access to an associate transfer program, where spouses can apply for jobs wherever their spouse may be stationed in the next permanent change of station move.

AAFES has also increased the credit toward retirement from five to seven years for veterans joining their workforce.

The next steps for Shull remain to be determined.

“I want to spend more time with my family. They’ve been so supportive. The reason I’ve been able to continue to focus on the military is because they’ve been so supportive … Serving those who serve has been the honor of my life,” he said.

He’s confident AAFES will be in good hands with the next director and CEO, Brad Bingham.

The two have worked together for 14 years. Bingham was most recently deputy director and chief financial officer.

“He’ll be very committed to continuing the positive momentum we began 14 years ago. He understands our culture, he understands the need to focus on the core customer, the service members and their families,” Shull said. “The time is right for me to move on. I’m ready to have the next generation carry this great company forward.”