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Every year, more than 600,000 active duty military families move because of new deployments. And most of those families are living off military bases and installations – meaning they need to get used to new towns and cities on a regular basis. That’s why Blue Star Families, a nonprofit supporting military households, is kicking off it’s 5th annual “welcome week” on September 21st to help servicemembers and their loved ones adjust to their new surroundings.

First Lt. Daniel Weiss was a 25-year-old Army Ranger preparing for his fourth combat deployment to Afghanistan when he died by suicide at his Tacoma, Wash., apartment in 2012. There were difficult days after that, recalled his father, Andy. But what proved both surprising and hurtful, he said, were efforts to ensure his son’s death was viewed differently than those of fellow service members who had been killed in action.

The family learned, for instance, that Daniel’s name would be excluded from a monument at Joint Base Lewis-McChord memorializing casualties of war. A few years later, at a brunch for military survivors back home in Illinois, the Weisses were told their invitation had been an accident. Though they were allowed to stay, he said, it was made clear the event was for Gold Star families.