With that said, my military family is greatly affected by the government shut down. I absolutely am resolute in believing there is enough blame to spread throughout the entire District of Columbia for you to ever hear me finger pointing one way or another.
I think, more than anyone, the military families and the DOD (Department of Defense) civilians are most greatly affected by what is happening in Washington right now. We were incredibly grateful for the Military Pay bill that went through at the eleventh hour on Monday. It ensured we saw our paychecks continue without defaults or IOU's (which was what would have happened without the Military Pay bill).
With that said, under the original bill (before the Military Pay was passed), if a service member is killed in action during the government shut down, their families will not receive death benefits, to include their insurance until the budget is passed. As of this point, I have not read if that was included in the Military Pay bill but I am not sure.
But there are other changes besides our pay....the grocery store is shut down. On Tuesday, the Commissary remained opened only to get rid of the perishables. The line was so long to check out it took 2+ hours to feed through. The ambulance was called at least twice to assist people who had passed out from standing so long in line. While it sounds ludacrious to most, the Commissary saves the average military family 30% on their grocery bill versus shopping at the other local grocery stores. That is HUGE for us.
The Clinic which houses all our doctors, pharmacy, labs, etc. has been closed. They are continuing to honor pre-existing appointments on a skeleton crew, all new cases are being denied services. Our option is the emergency room off post.
What is closed or open during this shut down is made on a case by case basis per the Garrison Commander (the guy in charge of the entire post). We were blessed that our Garrison commander had to good sense to believe children's sports and activities were important to our children and so Connor will continue football through the end of the season. Not all military bases were as lucky and every sport, activity, support group offered to military kids has been shut down. If the budget doesn't pass by October 15, all of ours will be shut down as well.
A kicker for deployed service members...none of the "special" pays that soldiers typically receive for being in combat. Those pays have all been suspended.
The feeling on our post is strange. People are going about "business as usual" but it is dominating every topic of conversation. There is an uneasiness about what else is going to be taken away from us or what else we can expect to loose or give up.
Definitely a frightening time in our country and a very unpredictable time to serve our country.
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