I was happy to see the story about military and Defense Department civilian families starting a petition against mistreatment during shipment of their household belongings (“Military families angry about damage, thefts during moves,” Star-Advertiser, Top News, Oct. 6).

I was the victim of poorly managed and executed government moves on multiple occasions during my career. I have had my most precious possessions lost by movers with little to no concern or effort on the part of the company to find the items.

The history of damage by the movers and lack of concern from the armed services goes back for decades, although it has escalated in recent years.

I believe that a major reason for the decline is that many shipment office personnel have been replaced by software. In place of a human government shipment counselor, one must “self- counsel” using a computer program.

Insanely, I was forced to sign documents that listed the software as my counselor instead of a real person.

Simply ridiculous.

Randy Jackson

Mililani

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