GAO found gaps in military transfer data tracking

The Government Accountability Office published a report Friday 13 November 2026 on military service policies for humanitarian reassignments and safety transfers. The report assessed policy development, oversight, request processing and data tracking.

The agency said humanitarian reassignments relocate service members to another duty station because of family emergencies or other hardship. Safety transfers apply to service members or their dependents who face threats of bodily harm or death when authorities cannot ensure their safety at their current location.

According to available military service data, over 15,000 service members requested humanitarian reassignment from fiscal year 2022 through 2025. The Army and the Marine Corps approved at least 95 percent of the requests in each year. Navy approval rates ranged from 74 to 84 percent, while Air Force rates ranged from 66 to 83 percent.

Nearly 400 service members requested safety transfers over the same period. The military services approved 87 percent of those requests, according to available data, documentation and military service officials.

The Army, Marine Corps and Air Force centrally track humanitarian reassignment requests and outcomes. The Navy centrally tracks requests for enlisted personnel in a spreadsheet but does not track requests from officers. The agency said this limited the Navy's visibility into the total population making requests.

The Army and Navy centrally track safety transfer data. Air Force officials said the service plans to do so by September 2026. Marine Corps officials said the service does not clearly define safety-related relocations or track the data. Officials said establishing a central tracking process would not be difficult.

Approximately 260,000 to 280,000 service members, along with their families, relocate each year due to assignments at new duty stations. GAO analyzed military service policies and available data for fiscal year 2022 through 2025 and interviewed officials from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military services.