Military families go hungry . Accepting food donations.

[Ksec]

This is really pathetic that the military families accept food handouts as the bomb makers make billions. Whats this say about the bushites priorities?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061013/news_7m13bread.html
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Helping the hungry on base

Many military families rely on donated goods

By Rick Rogers
STAFF WRITER

October 13, 2006

The women and children who formed a line at Camp Pendleton last week could have been waiting for a child-care center to open or Disney on Ice tickets to go on sale.

EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union Tribune
Volunteer Marisela Helgeson (left) and Military Outreach Ministry associate director Patty Dutra prepared to distribute food to Marine families at Camp Pendleton. Behind them, some family members waited to pick up the donated items.
Instead, they were waiting for day-old bread and frozen dinners packaged in slightly damaged boxes. These families are among a growing number of military households in San Diego County that regularly rely on donated food.

[MADem]

1. In the old days, military personnel at the junior paygrades were single

You didn't get married as an E-1,2,3 or even 4--there just wasn't enough base housing or dough to support a family, as a rule--even with 'with dependents' stipends.

Also, in the old days (Waaaaaay back when, mind you) you had to get your commander's PERMISSION to marry.

The age of the new recruit has gone up, and the percentage of married junior personnel is way, way up--the highest ever.

Wages which are fine for a single person don't cut it when you've got a spouse and a few kids at home.

And sadly, the present economy is driving people who would never join the service normally, with a spouse and kids, into the fray, just to get housing and healthcare for their families.

[HereSince1628]

3. I can't imagine being a low ranking EM in the reserve or guard

and leaving a real paying job, trying to support a family and home mortgage on an Army salary. Some of these soldiers must have suffered paycuts by a factor of 2 or 3. THAT had to make life just about impossible. Imaging trading in your house (which is most young families' only nest egg) for rent on a crummy mobile home or apt just so you can answer the call of your country.

[malmapus]

12. That rule on marriage must still be around..just not enforced

Because, when I had an Article 15, one of the charges was getting married without commadning officers permission.

I think the rule is still in the books, just not openly enforced. I was a special case in that my wife (at the time) was a foreign national.

EDIT: this was '95

[wakeme2008]

2. Ah,, the good old Clinton days......

By the 96 election Clinton had cut the number of soldiers on food stamps in half by his raises he pushed for them... Another Bush more troops on food stamps.... :grr:

[MADem]

4. I worked that issue in DC for awhile back then, actually

...and we got it down to a small percentage of one percent of the total force. The ones who were suffering were the very junior personnel with a shitload of kids, or the E-7s with a DOZEN kids or so, and perhaps a special needs kid at home that prevented a spouse from working... and all living in high cost areas...but the number was so small that you almost knew the names of all the service personnel who were on food stamps.

The assignment process was helpful in cutting the numbers--you don't send someone with eight kids to San Diego or another high cost area for example, for example. You try, to the extent possible to "homebase" families so they don't have to be uprooted every three or so years, and the spouse can get a career path going.

Nowadays, they're just slotting bodies willynilly, without regard for family impact.

[midnight]

7. Very sensible ideas you discuss here. Do you think part of

this poverty issue today stems from them not applying these ideas?

[MADem]

15. There are two tracks happening with the problems the MFMs have today

(MFM=Military Family Member).

First, they've recalled a slew of Guard and Reserves, and this uproots their lives, often causes them to suffer serious pay cuts (the foreman making sixty grand a year is activated to a junior enlisted job where he's pulling down thirty, for example), there are expenses attendant with going "active" (need that full seabag full of clothes that actually fit, and so forth) and then there's the expense of being separated (computer access, phone cards, mail, care packages back and forth) that aren't covered by FSA (family separation allowance). Your pay is tax free while you are in the sandbox, but even at that, it's not always sufficient to compensate for the loss of civilian pay, and more so if you had a little business going on the side, like some folks do for a bit of extra money.

I know they aren't caring as much about homebasing now amongst the active forces, so they don't have the assurances they had in the old days, unless the servicemember is willing to take some arduous duty back-to-back or sea duty extensions in places like Norfolk, for example.

It's just a case of "we've got billets/we don't have bodies" because the Services have been stretched like crazy. They plug the most important billets with what bodies they have, and the servicemember's family needs take second place to "mission requirements." There's no wiggle room to care about the families as much, nowadays.

The USAF and USN are dealing with 'gapped' billets in a major way, and they are having to trim mission to mitigate this fact (you have a job for a person on the base, but you don't get a body to fill the job, because there aren't enough people to go around--so someone else has to do TWO jobs, or you just don't do that work anymore!). Those two branches are also sending people, quietly, to Eye-Rack and Afghanistan, mostly to fulfill security police-type billets, and they just aren't trained for that type of work. The billet says MAA/SP, but the duty is infantry.

It's a mess.

[AnneD]

10. I can vouch for that....

I grew up as an Air Force brat (until my parents divorced). It was hell when we were kids. To this day I will not eat hot oatmeal willingly (or bologna). Dad was an airman (1st -3rd class) with 4 kids (this was before the pill-forget condoms-you see how reliable they were). He was with SAC and Sac bases seldom had family quarters at all. And the Air Force was suppose to be the better branch. Early in their marriage, Mom (who was pregnant with me) said that they did not make enough to buy food for her (this was before food stamps) after they paid their expenses (and my mom is a frugal person). She said the only thing that saved them was that Dad, who worked in the mess kitchens, actually had to 'illegally requisition' food to sustain her.

Mom was great to protect us from knowing how poor we really were. I was the oldest so I remember the most. We made toys from boxes, newspapers, toilet paper tubes and cans. I remember making cars (pre hot wheels) for my brothers out of used shaving blade dispensers. I made doll houses out of shoe boxes and used scrapes of fabric to decorate. Mom couldn't work due to our closeness in the ages of the kids but she saved money by making sewing our clothes out of remnant fabric and doing just about every job that needed to be done buy herself. Now this is not a sentimental trip down memory lane like the Walton's. We made due, but this country should be embarrassed about how they treat the enlisted. They shouldn't blame the soldier's money problems on predatory lenders that are like a malignant tumor surrounding military posts. The guys don't get paid PERIOD.

Now I did time in the USAR and I did better because I had a good paying job to support me while I did what I feel every American should do...give back to this country. One of my brothers also did a stint in the military (USAR). Due to the total FUBAR condition of the military today, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone these days. They'll give you a nice funeral if you die, but if you are injured, you're screwed worse than when you were enlisted. How you treat your current troops will determine the character of your future troops (I think George Washington said something like that).....and folks, we're all screwed.

[VLC98]

11. Thanks for sharing Anne.

That was very interesting to me, as a comparison to my life as an AF wife from 1987 to 2005. We managed quite well financially, even though I've never had a job, mainly because my husband spent half his career in my native England, where the COLA was pretty good. Also, thanks to the pill, we only have two children. I remember our main hardship came from buying used cars that broke down the day before every payday! We were at one of the last SAC bases, Griffiss, NY, and even though base housing was quite grotty, there was more than a two year wait for it. We paid $450 a month to rent a tiny old house, when our BAQ was about $250, and we PCS'd before our name got anywhere near the top of the housing list.

Fast forward to the young military families of today who are faced with difficult decisions in a society that is so materialistic. Many young airmen drive around in flashy new cars, while my husband is content with his '98 Honda Accord. Like you, he wouldn't recommend the military to anyone these days, especially our kids.

[AnneD]

14. I feel for those young families today....

I remember when I got out that military families qualified for food stamps. Clinton really shamed Congress into paying these guys well. And with all the technology that you need to know these days-you better pay well because you won't always get the top personnel that you need. The way they have abused the Guard and Reserve;it will take many years to build it back.

I remember when I was in (was 24) and they tried and tried to recruit me into active duty from USAR-this was post Viet Nam. The Captain I worked will was ready to give me a blank check (OCS, post I wanted, etc). I kept telling him no. When he finally asked why I wouldn't go regular. Without batting an eye I told him that I believed in giving back to my country and this was the reason for my service. I told him that I discovered that the military was the only place I knew of that when you took the oath to uphold the Constitution-you immediately lost all your Constitutional rights. He got this sad smile on his face and said that I was too smart and philosophical for this man's army....and then he recommended military law if I ever wanted a military career.

I am glad I did it because I learned much, but it is not the life for me.

[Ksec]

16. Thanks for that.

My brother who was in the Air Force had similar circumstances.

[NaturalHigh]

5. I was in the Air Force during the Clinton years.

If I recall correctly, the pay raise we got was the largest military pay raise ever.

[wakeme2008]

6. Right and the Repugs controlling Congress tried to play the Clinton

does not care about the military BS. Clinton would ask for 4.1% raise and the House/Senate would say that is too cheap, the military men/women need 4.2% can make it sounds like they were the best thing for the military.

Say you made $20,000 a 4.1% raise is $820 more per year. But big Repug spenders pushed through 4.2 for a big $840 raise or only $20 more per year than cheap does not care about the troop Clinton...

And they did this every year.

[malmapus]

13. That's cool, never really kept up with the issue

I remember when I was in, the joke was that an E-6 who had been in for 12 years was still able to apply for welfare.

Even remember a time when me and my roommate ordered a pizza (was the weekend), and when it arrived, it was one of my team Sgts (was an E-6 as well) delivering it. He had to get a second job, and we were active not Reserves or NG. Even had another buddy doing second job at the White Castle, he was an E-4 though.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I'm sure the right-wing Christian churches will get right on it.

:eyes:

[niallmac]

9. They will if we're talking about 'unborn' soldiers. n/t