Government shutdown, again.

So this morning, of course I woke up to more asshattery from the military community as a whole. Oh well. By now, I expect it. OK, people, we get it. Soldiers put their lives on the line for this country, work crappy hours, do a job most people don't want. Dude, I was a soldier at one point in time. I know these facts more intimately than any non-veteran on the planet. I get it. It's crappy that the military might not get paid in full and on time this paycheck. DFAS (Defense Finance and Accounting Service) did us a grand favor (and by that, I mean fueled the fire big time) by preemptively posting Leave and Earning Statements (that's what we call pay stubs around here) reflecting half a paycheck on the 15th. That just gave more for people to flip out about before it's actually even a done deal. Yes, we still don't know for sure what's going to happen.

It's getting ugly. I won't lie. People are going nuts. There are the ones who are freaking out, yelling at everyone from random people like me, all the way up to our Garrison Commander, about how they can't feed their babies, and are going to get evicted, and stuff like that. Then there are the ones who berate the first group for having no savings, and living outside their means. Both of these groups are equally wrong and annoying.

Yes, people should have savings, and a lot of people do, but until they go back to disallowing marriage below a certain rank, and stop taking enlistees with dependents, there's going to be a significant percentage of the military who is stretched to the limit financially, so chastising people for their life situations (whether we agree with them or not) is not productive at this point, and won't change anything.

Furthermore, freaking out is just annoying. If you want to figure out how not to get evicted, your car repo'd, and starve to death, then you probably should start calling around to people you pay money to each month, and figure out what can be done if you don't get a full paycheck. Most auto lenders have the option to defer one payment a year (or something like that) but they need notice in order to make that happen. Most utility companies will offer a hardship extension of maybe 30 days. You may or may not get a suitable deal out of your landlord, and nobody's going to give you a discount on groceries or gas, but if you stop freaking out for long enough to pick up a phone and dial, you may find that you're not nearly as screwed as you think you are.

So what is my stance on this issue? Well, I think the government is full of idiots, and they are crazy for even getting us into this position in the first place. However, I also know that this is basically out of our hands at this point, so anything other than just sitting back and trying to figure out the finer points of it for our own family, come what may, is really pretty unproductive. We need to just deal with what we've got, and figure out how we're going to get through, each one of us. Of course, we are trying to do this without pulling from savings, but we know we may or may not succeed at that. Lucky for us, even half a paycheck, at Thak's rank, is enough to pay our bills. We may eat more lentils and less steak, but that's probably a smarter choice anyhow.

Anyhow, I digress. My stance on this is that over the course of a military career, you're going to see a lot of shit. There will be government cutbacks, and wars, and duty stations that you swear are out to get you. You'll probably run into your sworn enemy at a future duty station at some point, and he'll probably outrank you. You may even invade a country in unarmored vehicles, watch people die all around you, and somehow live to tell the tale. This is the Army, not cheerleading camp. This possible (not even entirely definite yet) messed up payday is just one more bump in the Army's road, one more punch to roll with. As much as so many people talk about how they're lifers (after barely a few years of service, no less!), it scares me for the future of my beloved Army that a short paycheck would bring people to their knees so easily.

Sure, it's easy for me to say.... My husband has 18 years of service. We're not scraping by on Private's pay with our 3rd baby coming soon. I haven't always been this person, though. I've been a Private (although with no dependents). I've been the wife of a Sergeant who paid out half his income in alimony, and then got his pay docked severely the day he left for his second tour in Iraq. I have also been the one who single-handedly got that situation fixed inside of 24 hours. I've had plenty of punches to roll with over my decade of military affiliation, so anyone who thinks I'm just sitting here in my ivory tower, speaking in a detached way, is wrong.

I will leave it at this. If the possibility of a short paycheck is enough to bring you to your knees, how can you say you are strong enough to defend our country? Surely, this is not the worst you have seen, and if it is, then take it as a dry run for when the shit REALLY hits the fan.