In September, the Department of Defense released a set of initiatives aimed at improving the welfare and well-being of service members and their families.

The initiatives included, among other things, establishment of health care flexible spending accounts for service members, policy changes to lower the cost of permanent change of station moves, and efforts to improve the quality of life for service members at remote and isolated duty locations.

Also among the initiatives is an effort to provide free wireless internet connectivity, or free Wi-Fi, to service members residing in military barracks. The department directed the military services to carry out a series of pilot projects to advance the effort.

Providing that connectivity is about more than just allowing service members to watch movies or play games, however. Free Wi-Fi for single service members is an operational issue, explained Brendan Owens, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment.

While participating in a discussion at the Center for a New American Security in Washington on Wednesday, Owens said he spends time talking with service members and families.

"Every time we go and we visit barracks … one of the questions that I ask our soldiers, our airmen, our Marines, our guardians, whoever, in those barracks is, if you could have 10 more square feet in your barracks room or free Wi-Fi, what would it be?" Ownes said. "No one is going to be surprised that a 19-year-old wants free Wi-Fi. And I think that that's one piece of the puzzle, is that there's a clear demand signal and a need there."

While it's easy to assume young service members are interested only in the entertainment options that the internet provides, there is more to it than that, Owens said.

"The other thing that I think is important is that as we sort of peel back what our service members, particularly our enlisted service members living in unaccompanied housing were doing with their Wi-Fi. They were doing things like accessing mental health services," he said. "They were doing things like connecting with their families when they're in remote locations."

Many service members, particularly those in combat arms and equipment maintenance fields, don't have regular access to a computer with an internet connection as part of their military job. If those service members want to engage in activities that require a computer, such as enrolling in online education, making adjustments to their military benefits, paying bills or making changes to their insurance, [or] participating in online counseling, they will need to do those things on their own time and on their own computers.

"From my perspective, and I think that this is certainly something that's supported down in other parts of the [Pentagon], certainly, [these are] mission essential requirements," Owens said. "We were able to get our legal teams aligned that [this] was actually a mission essential thing, and that's really kind of the jumping off point for how this is all coming together."

Access to wireless internet will allow junior service members access to personal email, banking and entertainment options, but will also help service members connect with mandatory online training requirements and other health and life related resources such as telehealth appointments, Military OneSource, and military and family life counselors.

According to department documents, DOD has long-term plans to establish a "Wi-Fi-connected force." For service members in unaccompanied housing, there is not expected to be any cost to access the provided internet services.

"We got a lot more work to do on making sure that we are capable of providing the Wi-Fi services that are necessary to fully support what our service members need," Owens said. "But from an installations and an infrastructure perspective, it's landed with us because we're the people who are capable of creating the enhanced use leases and the deals that are necessary for … us to be able to provide this to our service members in as expeditious a way as possible."

Free Wi-Fi for service members in military barracks is just one effort underway by the Defense Department to take care of service members and their families.

The September memorandum that announced both the Wi-Fi and six other initiatives is just the latest in a series of initiatives since 2021, to improve the lives of service members and their families.