So I just saw a story on CBS Evening News that really angered me.

[Stinky The Clown]

Essentially, our military families are food insecure and using food banks.

WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK ? ? ?

The story ran today. December 7, 2021. Eighty years after the risk our military members assume was made clear.

Our lower rank enlisted military are FOOD INSECURE.

Chew on that.





Mother

Fucker

[nolabear]

1. Military poor has been a thing forever.

Even back in the 60s when I was an Air Force brat we might not have been hungry but we were pretty poor. Trailer poor. If you have a family and problems that make it hard to have two comes it can be, and shouldn’t be, a problem.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I was in the Navy in the mid 60s

I may have been dumb, young, and naive but I don't recall the problem. Of course,I was single, stupid, and horny so it would have been easy for me to miss it.

[Tickle]

9. lol nt

[nolabear]

15. Whole 'nother life.

Family and extenuating circumstances can take you down if you can't live day by day. And clearly you weren't paying for high class "escorts."

[Permanut]

35. Also Navy, mid 60's..

Also single, so a whole different situation than families. I was a cook on a Destroyer, USS Sampson, DDG-10, and we ate well when I was on duty. As a side benefit I could trade a can of Spam (5 pounds) for a bottle of Scotch. I hope the statute of limitations has run out on that.

[Stinky The Clown]

42. Storekeeper and Jack-O-The-Dust here

An ARL and then an MSO

One is razor blades and the other one is toothpicks.

[TomSlick]

16. True.

My Army time was from the early 80s until the early 2010s. During all that time, junior enlisted folks with families were eligible for food stamps.

"Thank you for your service" is cheaper than paying service members a living wage.

[homegirl]

21. My daughter

was married to a Navy man at that time. I vividly remember her horrified phone call when she learned they were eligible for food stamps.

Seems nothing has changed in FORTY YEARS!!!

[Tommymac]

27. My dad was a 19 Marine vet...I grew up in a Trailer Park.

And shopped at the post exchange - it was relatively cheap.

We enjoyed fancy suppers like hotcakes and grits, spaghetti with tomato soup sauce, tuna casserole and lots of rice crispy meatloafs.

Too bad satellite TV did not really exist in the 1960's and 70's. But we did get our first color TV in 1972. Really enjoyed watching the 5 or 6 VHF stations we could get over the air. UHF was a joke.

And we got a new used car that had under 60,000 miles every 4 or 5 years. Most of them ran fairly well, if you overlook the busted head gasket and frequent overheats on the interstate for one; the 'spots' of rust in the cabin floor of another...

And I really enjoyed being a latchkey kid at the age of 10 because my dad was overseas in Okinawa and my mom had to work at a High's Ice Cream or Rose's Dept. Store most evenings so we could have a few nice things. I learned how to cook hot dogs, ham sandwiches, chicken-a-la-king boiling pouches, and pot pies really well.

[marble falls]

2. It's been like that since I was in during the early seventies. It's better than it was ...

... believe it or not. The Biden administration just gave enlisted ranks what I've heard is one the biggest raises ever in the last three months.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. I should have credited Biden for that. I know he knows and will do what he can

[marble falls]

11. 45 talked about it when adressing military crowds. Joe Biden went and did it with no fol-der-rah.

[Phoenix61]

4. How many 18 year olds make enough to

support themselves, a spouse, and a child? They don’t have to pay for medical care. Housing is based on pay.

[paleotn]

28. Enlisted personnel aren't all single and 18 years old....

And if you're willing to take bullets and shrapnel for the country, shouldn't you at least be paid a decent wage? Just asking.

Oh...and military housing? You really don't want to go there. You really don't.

[TimeToGo]

31. Pay

https://www.militaryonesource.mil/military-life-cycle/new-to-the-military/getting-settled/military-pay-101/


About 4600 per month for an E4 with four years (low rank) - and a dependent — more in a higher cost area. Approx 55000 per year.

This doesn’t include any hazard pay, etc.

As a vet, I am happy for service people to get paid and to not need food stamps. But, I mean, you won’t get rich, but it isn’t horrible, is it?

[paleotn]

44. Give Senator Tammy Duckworth a call and let her know....

"We're the mightiest military on the face of the Earth and yet those who are on the lower rung of our military ranks are—if they are married and have a child or two—they're hungry," said Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and former Blackhawk pilot who lost both legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq. "How can you focus on carrying out the mission and defending our democracy if you're worried about whether or not your kid gets dinner tonight.

https://www.newsweek.com/160k-active-duty-us-military-members-their-families-are-food-insecure-report-says-1649319

[TimeToGo]

45. Not sure what you're saying

[paleotn]

47. Seems she thinks there's a food security problem among enlisted personnel....

If by your account everything is hunky dory, maybe you should enlighten her. Just saying.

[TimeToGo]

49. Never said that though, so there's that

[Phoenix61]

33. I spent 10 years providing mental health services

to active duty Air Force and their dependents. I’m very aware of military pay and housing. The families I saw struggling were young, low rank enlisted with a spouse and children. The same ages as their struggling civilian counterparts. The lowest rank enlisted have to live in the dorms unless they are married so…. of course they get married. That one policy is responsible for more bad choices than you could imagine. Having a baby seems like, to them, the next natural step. So a young couple who is far away from home and trying to do it all on their own.

[paleotn]

43. Maybe you should take that up with Senator Tammy Duckworth...

"We're the mightiest military on the face of the Earth and yet those who are on the lower rung of our military ranks are—if they are married and have a child or two—they're hungry," said Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and former Blackhawk pilot who lost both legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq. "How can you focus on carrying out the mission and defending our democracy if you're worried about whether or not your kid gets dinner tonight.

https://www.newsweek.com/160k-active-duty-us-military-members-their-families-are-food-insecure-report-says-1649319

[Victor_c3]

5. As a veteran, I'm surprised

But then again, I never really noticed or thought about such things when I was in the Army. I was a junior officer and I lived off post when I was assigned to any sort of a line unit. Outside of work, I just about never interacted with other service members.

I do know that housing was solely based on need where I was stationed. If you were a Private and you had a wife and six kids, they gave you house that had plenty of bedrooms for the family. I always assumed that the family could afford food too, but housing is handled differently (and more holistically) than food.

[2naSalit]

7. We were...

Navy and poor. I remember powdered milk mixed with real milk, the only place we could afford to shop was the commissary on base. Welfare wasn't a thing back then and military didn't get food stamps back in the late 50s and through the 60s.

[Dan]

8. The military for enlisted - that had dependents - I always used to say, gave you just enough

To survive on. You were always one flat tire from being in trouble.

[Solly Mack]

10. It's been that way for a while now.

Military families get WIC and SNAP - and they need both.

Army posts sometimes have a separate food bank for service members and that's needed too. Except my experience with them was negative. I volunteered at one once - and only once - and they treated the people needing help in an insulting manner. I was appalled.

Within my husband's company, I established a food drive to ensure extra help was there when needed - without all the judgmental looks and comments they would get from the food bank on post.

Military members also have to go to food banks on the economy.

I could tell some tales about how bad the poverty was on some of the posts I lived on over a twenty plus year period.

[kacekwl]

13. Funny you'd think the

Organization that receives more money than any other government supported program by FAR can't feed their own. Elected representatives love to give more and more money to them. I wonder where it goes ?

[orleans]

41. you made me think of wlamart / low wages / employees on food stamps

walmart motto: if the military can do it then so can we!

????

[Caliman73]

14. Just now?

Military spending is the largest item in Federal discretionary spending, and it has NEVER been spent on the actual soldiers and their families.

That has been an issue for decades. Remember hearing about the Bonus Army during the Depression? The squalid conditions of the VA during the Vietnam War? The predatory loans affecting Gulf War vets? The shitty housing on bases with electrocution risk and unpotable water because KBR needed to cut corners to make profit. The elimination of military food services, privatization, and overcharging of soldiers for meals?


The military puts A LOT of money into training soldiers and equipping them to kill, but very little money into actually helping them to live.

[twodogsbarking]

17. Don't be bad mouthing the military.

[onethatcares]

48. nobody's badmouthing the military

they're saying that the troops can't be given decent wages and housing due to rich peoples' yachts.

Or am I overreacting to your post?

[ancianita]

18. FUCK REPUBLICANS -- THIS IS ALL ON THEM. LET THIS BE CAMPAIGN FODDER!

[Evolve Dammit]

19. Costs are sky rocketing. Food/rent/insurance "insecure" ranks are growing, military and civilian.

[CaptainTruth]

20. Don't look into the state of military housing.

Your head might explode.

And yes, our military families deserve much better.

[left-of-center2012]

22. Nothing new, sadly

This was a BIG story before … maybe a year ago.
Apparently nothing has changed.

Also previously there were stories about military families on food stamps.

[Traildogbob]

23. You are so right

To be pissed. And the dark Money rent a soldiers like Devos’s brother runs are stuffing off shore accounts.

[paleotn]

24. Been like that for a long time.

A travesty.

[Bleacher Creature]

25. There are bigger issues to deal with, like kneeling for the national anthem.

As usual, Republicans are screwing over the people that they claim to support as part of their phony culture war battles.

[jmowreader]

26. This is worse

The command sergeant major of the last battalion I was in was eligible for food stamps. He told us this at an NCO call, and he was NOT happy about the situation. This man had served his country honorably and well enough to earn the highest enlisted rank, and what's he hear upon arriving at Fort Drum? "Would you like to sign up for food stamps now?"

[monkeyman1]

29. I am a vet & you want a ear full , go to a va clinic or hospital & ask a vet -

what they think about congress & the people in Washington ! guaranteed you won't like it ! I go to va all the time ! thank god I got the VA. could afford the med's of a civilian insurance !

[DVRacer]

30. Junior enlisted get little

First four years you will avg around $1000 twice a month before taxes.
You get a bed usually within arms reach of others married or not. You will get health care for you and your family but the hoops are a thing. They have food available in the galley/mess hall if you are allowed time to go eat. You usually work 12+ hrs a day 7 days a week. Are there exceptions of course. It works out to about 8.00/hr plus benefits roughly based on the 2021 pay chart that is including the occasional day off and 30 days leave per year.

[dflprincess]

32. Makes a person wonder where all those taxes we pay for "defense" are going

(That's a rhetorical question).

[SeattleVet]

34. In the 70' and 80's each Air Force squadron had a 'Food Stamp Officer'

Usually a relatively new 2nd Lieutenant, their job was to smooth the road, assist with the paperwork, and follow through on getting a LOT of enlisted families onto federal food programs.

The lower enlisted folks with families have been hurting for a LONG time.

[Lonestarblue]

36. If you look at the military budget, a lot goes for equipment.

And you know who gets rich from that equioment—the wealthy shareholders of corporations like Raytheon. You have to scroll to the bottom of this link to finally see some money for soldiers.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2079489/dod-releases-fiscal-year-2021-budget-proposal/

[Hekate]

37. Sadly, that's been going on a very long time

It is not right

[The Jungle 1]

38. My son is in the guard

Many of the soldiers he serves with are very poor.
Remember the right does not care about our military. Slobfather proved that.

[Hortensis]

39. Agree. Disgusting, outrageous, contemptible.

I've never voted for a tax cut because of all the debts and responsibilities unmet.

[bluecollar2]

40. In 1980 I was stationed at NAS Moffett Field

I remember being told that you could be written up if you were caught using foodstamps if you were in uniform.

Fortunately I was "relatively single" at the time so i made out ok but there were plenty of my shipmates that were married and had kids. It was tough on them..

[Kaleva]

46. This has been going on for decades