Roughly, 600,000 military families move each year. By October, most of them are settling into their new homes. That’s when the reality of moving every two to three years sets in, Shuana Hibler-Culie said.
She just relocated from Charleston, South Carolina, with her two young children. Her husband, Lanier Hibler-Culie, is a Navy Master-at-Arms. He works with the Harbor Patrol at Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story.
“There's no way to fully understand it unless you've been through it. To be completely honest, I had never even thought about military life until I met my husband, and until he introduced me to it,” she said.
He’s been in the Navy for 16 years. They’ve been married for 12 years. In that time, they’ve moved three times.
Blue Star Families works with the military. In their 2025 survey, the median Virginia military family household spent more than $650 out of pocket on their last move, up from $500 in 2024.
The figure doesn’t include the money families spend upfront to move, which may not be reimbursed by the military for months after they’ve settled into their new community. In Virginia, nearly 70 percent of military families surveyed by Blue Star said they have not recovered financially from their last move.
Hampton Roads has among the highest percentage of military families in the country. The concentration of active duty Navy families can also strain the resources. Finding a doctor who takes military insurance is a struggle, Hibler-Culie said.
“That's been a roller coaster for me, the medical aspect of it. Re-establishing healthcare has been a journey,” she said, adding she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease two years ago.
“I have a number of different specialists that I need to see, and going through Tricare Prime has been somewhat of a struggle. I've also had to do it for my children as well, because both of my children are neurodivergent, and so that's been a journey of trying to figure out the different therapies that they need,” she said.
Roughly 28% of military families suffer from food insecurity, but even families of higher-ranking enlisted sailors are caught short on supplies after a move. In Hampton, Blue Star Families recently held a pantry restock for families who left food behind during their move.
“Something that they don't tell you about is usually when you move, you don't really get to take all of your food with you, so that was something that we had to replenish and get more of,” Hibler-Culie said.
