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Over the last decade, a Department of Defense program has quietly provided long-term support to thousands of families whose loved ones were killed in action. It’s a small team, but their mission is critical — especially in the environment where the military has been slowly scaling back survivor programs.
The program offers a wide range of services to survivors, regardless of the fallen service member’s military branch, location or manner of death — for as long as families need them. But the department’s return-to-office push is now putting that mission in jeopardy.
For years, the program was under the authority of individual installations. But in 2023, the decision was made to move the program from under the purview of the installations and make it centrally managed and fully remote.
The team, which mostly consists of program coordinators, waited until their updated position descriptions were finalized before making any major life changes. Once the program was officially recognized as 100% remote, staff members moved where they could afford housing or be near family.
The Trump administration return-to-office order is now forcing these employees to choose between uprooting their entire lives and relocating to one of the three designated return sites or losing their jobs — and walking away from the families they serve.
As the Defense Department scrambles to comply with Trump’s executive order, program employees said the process has been chaotic, stressful and confusing, with constantly shifting guidance and no clear plan for how remote staff are supposed to return to offices that no longer exist.
“We were told over and over and over again, ‘Do not worry about that.’ Our [position description] is 100% remote. We don’t have offices to go back to. Then our director came back and said, ‘I’m very frustrated and I’m very sorry, but you’re now being told that your program will not be exempt. Everybody is expected to come back into office. We need everybody to tell us by close of business where you live, what the closest military facility or federal building is to you, and how far it is away from you.’ We tried, and in the end, this is what this is. There is no changing this. And everybody was just shocked,” one program employee, an unremarried Gold Star spouse, told Federal News Network.
“It became very ugly. The stress that it put on our program — we are people who deal with families who have lost everything. They’re going through what I can personally say is one of the worst possible times of your life.”
After debates about who is exempt from the return-to-office order, the Office of Personnel Management released an updated directive that “categorically” exempted federal employees married to service members who are either serving active-duty, deceased, or who had a disability rating of 100% on the date of retirement.
The guidance came out at the end of February, but the Gold Star program employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it wasn’t until last Friday she was told to continue working remotely.
“For all civilian employees that are qualifying military spouses, we want to assure you that we continue to seek clarity on the spousal exemption and are keeping up with the latest guidance as we receive it. Qualifying military spouses can continue to work remotely as before,” read an email sent to employees on March 28.
But the return-to-office mandate is already having ripple effects across the program. Some employees are retiring, others are leaving, and the program itself is at risk. One employee who helped create the program more than a decade ago is retiring, while another employee is being terminated because she can’t relocate to one of the designated return sites. She also doesn’t live anywhere near an installation or a federal building.
In addition, employees are being asked to return to office amid space shortages, which compromises the sensitive work program coordinators do for Gold Star families.
“Even though we are non-medical case management, the information that we discussed cannot be put into a cubicle or into a space that doesn’t have four walls and a door and a ceiling. It’s not appropriate to have discussions with our families with the nature of what we’re discussing. You can’t have that in a room full of 40 other people, it’s bad business and bad practice,” the program coordinator said.
As the program starts losing people and the caseload grows heavier for the remaining team, the staff worries these changes could be the beginning of the end for this program.
“I am worried that they’re going to push enough people out of the program doing the things that they’re doing that they can effectively say, ‘Hey, your program isn’t able to take care of these families,’” the program coordinator said.
Program at risk
The staff recently completed the program’s midterm evaluations, and starting in June, Congress will review the program to determine whether it should be funded for the next year.
May — which is designated as Gold Star Awareness Month — is an important month for the program. Coordinators typically host remembrance events, bring families together and elevate the voices of survivors.
When all official monthly celebrations related to race and identity were banned across the Defense Department amid a government-wide purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, program staff were told they could no longer refer to it as an “awareness” month — only as a “remembrance” month.
Then funding got pulled, and a travel ban for all civilian employees went into effect.
“We’re told it’s not going to be held against you if things fall through because of the guidance that’s come down from above. But it will be held against you, because all of those things are going to be evaluated in June and July by Congress. All those things that show why the program is important, why it needs to be funded again for another year. What I see happening is them going, ‘If we’re not going to fund it, then we can get rid of it, and then we can actually sell it to some company, to another contract, and let it be a contract issue and let them do it,’” the program coordinator said.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747
The post DoD’s Gold Star family support program at risk amid return-to-office orders first appeared on Federal News Network.