How were you personally impacted by the govt shutdown?

MG Peter Bosse — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 12:27:16 -0400

The US government was shutdown for 16 days in October 2013. This shutdown was felt in different ways by different people. Describe how you were personally impacted by the government shutdown. I had to cancel orders, cancel all travel, cancel weekend Battle Assemblies and cancel planned unit health and dental assessments. The good news is that much of this work can be made up and corrected over the next 11 months.

Response by CH (CPT) Heather Davis made Oct 27 at 2013 12:52 PM

CH (CPT) Heather Davis — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 12:52:51 -0400

BG Bosse:My C-4 class was
canceled and the next target date is Jan. Many families were impacted financially due to many of our Soldiers are looking for jobs. I am thankful to be a part of Rally Point due to networking opportunities and the importance of mentoring and developing the next generation.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 27 at 2013 1:07 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 13:07:58 -0400

Sir,My Battalion was preparing for our annual push for live fire training right at beginning of the shutdown. The shutdown cost us a week of our training, though my Soldiers did really well to be flexible and we continued our training immediately once the shutdown ended. My Soldiers did outstanding to overcome these obstacles though they were shaken up a bit not knowing if they were still getting a paycheck. The spouses rallied and helped one another find great discounts and coupons for groceries, etc. I am very proud of the army community to continue working hard as they have considering the issues with the government.

Response by COL Tom Lewis made Oct 27 at 2013 3:07 PM

COL Tom Lewis — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 15:07:46 -0400

I became unemployed for 20 days since I was supposed to be on ADOS orders. No pay and no benefits. Of course there was still work to do. It was a very tall flag pole until Reservists could go back to work (for pay.)

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 28 at 2013 6:46 PM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:46:37 -0400

Still being impacted. Our ADOS-RC personnel who were new for the year were unable to start due to the Shutdown and therefore I ended up doing my job plus two others. That is the added cost of full time military service in the Army Reserve.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 29 at 2013 12:11 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:11:14 -0400

For us it was mainly the loss of our Government Civilians and watching the effects on their families. We had to push back a few deadlines, here at work, but the tolls on the GSs was the worst part of it all.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 29 at 2013 1:58 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 13:58:08 -0400

Sir, Great question. Initially after reading your post I had a hard time identifying with any "Real" personal impacts. While the mission of my unit saw some minor impact with contractors, and our Postal Operations were on hold for a day there were no real impacts which directly affected me at the time. I will say though that the timing of your post is ironic as just yesterday I had to cancel TDY plans while they continue to work on sorting our funds for training (Foundry).

Response by CMC Robert Young made Oct 30 at 2013 7:21 PM

CMC Robert Young — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 19:21:38 -0400

Sir, the Coast Guard Reserve came to an almost complete stop! We cancelled training required for job certification maintenance; stopped members from reporting to advanced professional education schools; postponed semi annual personnel administrative updates and verifications; cancelled travel between units for command cadre members; deferred planning for future exercises, and a host of other things.

The one thing we didn't alter was the requirement for members competing for advancement to take the Service Wide Exam at the appointed time. They were simply told (and I one of those people), be there to take the SWE, or forfeit this year's opportunity at the promotional test. We'll pay you when and if we can.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 4 at 2013 11:23 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 23:23:30 -0500

Sir, the expectations that my superiors wanted out of me, was to be at par with what we had before the government shutdown. During the shutdown, a heavy amount of civilians were home while myself and my peers were picking up the added responsibilities. The stress was very high during that time.

This isn't the bad part, sir.

When the employees returned to their posts, the quality performance dropped significantly. I can only speculate assumptions of individual lack of interest, because they were sent home. All in all, what was once a desire to have pride in our work is now the missing item due to the government shutdown.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 5 at 2013 12:47 AM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 00:47:20 -0500

All I heard was a bunch of whining blaming conservatives...

Response by SGT Thomas Sullivan made Nov 5 at 2013 2:46 PM

SGT Thomas Sullivan — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 14:46:37 -0500

Sir, working up at PEO-C3T in APG I can say that the effect was eye opening, especially for contractors. I was expected to still show up to work, and the base was a ghost town. Where normally thousands were, a handful of contractors (less than a thousand) were present and expected to hold the fort. We work in military communications and the war-fighter doesn't sleep, neither do satellites. I feel the shutdown was poorly planned, and certain 24/7 Operational positions should not have been effected.

Response by CPT Endre Barath made Nov 5 at 2013 8:39 PM

CPT Endre Barath — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 20:39:52 -0500

Since I am a Los Angeles area Realtor, my perspective is based on how it impacted my business. The confidence level of buyers were shaken, some buyers cancelled transactions, others could not get a loan and the transactions had to be delayed. Overall it provided a great deal of concern and nervous instability on the fragile economic recovery which it troubling since Real Estate leads the recovery.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 5 at 2013 9:05 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:05:24 -0500

Sir,

On a positive note, I took my family for vacations during does days.

All that I was uncertain if I would have a job afterwards, I made the decision to enjoy the present. I still have not got the back pay for those days, so I am glad that I had funds saved for a rainy day.

I was on military orders that got cancelled on September 30 then I was furloughed from my federal employer from October 4th to the 8th.

Response by Jordan Gaudard made Nov 6 at 2013 10:22 AM

Jordan Gaudard — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 10:22:58 -0500

Sir, The biggest impact that happened to me was trying to go through SRP with limited or no personnel. The Medical field seemed untouched by the shutdown, but Finance and Legal were little or had no presence at all. I went to a station to get a POA to have the lady working that station to give me a piece of paper that lists dates and times for everyone on post to get a POA. Maybe not an experience for myself, but I had a Soldier in my platoon who was in WLC for 1 week when they decided to shut down and send him back to the unit. This Soldier was aspiring to be a Non-Commissioned Officer and to have that leadership experience to take him to that next level. He is just one of over a 200 in that WLC class. His experience to the shutdown was much worse than mine and I wouldn't expect him to stay in the military if he misses his promotion with his peers due to that situation. A good Soldier lost to unnecessary circumstances.

Response by CPT Brandon Christensen made Nov 6 at 2013 12:38 PM

CPT Brandon Christensen — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 12:38:35 -0500

Sir, since I am in the NG, our drills for the month were cancelled. Majority of all NG Soldiers, including myself, rely on our NG income each month to support our family. With the shutdown I had to work overtime and sacrifice time with my family and raising my 2.5 year old son to make up that income. I am currently still working overtime to make up that income, putting me behind on my bills.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 6 at 2013 12:47 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 12:47:08 -0500

Sir, I operate on yearly active duty contracts for the Georgia Army National Guard. This makes my situation much different from Traditional Guardsmen and Active Guard Reserve (AGR) in that I don't have a civilian job to fall back on and I have to cross my fingers at the beginning of every fiscal year hoping there's enough money in the budget to hire myself and the rest of my office back on for another year. When the government shut down occurred, it was right at that awkward period. I was suddenly off contract and ordered to stay at home with my phone to be able to come back to work at a moment's notice. I would not receive any pay until the shut down was over and I would not be able to receive retroactive pay for the work missed because I was not on orders during that time. My Tricare was suddenly cut off as well. It only covers me when I am on orders and it would have taken two weeks to activate a different plan. It was a time of nervousness and stress, knowing that I could very well burn through all my savings just to subsist in wait to go back to work. If I became sick or injured, I had no health insurance to cover any bills.

This shutdown showed me what little job security I actually have. I can't even imagine what it was like for my coworkers that had families to support and multiple dependents. I love my job. I love doing it. I love the satisfaction of training tomorrow's Warriors. But if a disagreement in Congress can potentially bankrupt me...I have no choice but to start pursuing alternative career options.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 7 at 2013 4:06 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 04:06:39 -0500

Sir,

My reserve unit is deploying and we had courses set up for them to go to in order to improve our readiness. All the courses were canceled for the month of October. Leaving the soldier with no work because they requested it off from their civilian job. It was a mess and some soldiers were feeling that their leadership was not fighting for them to keep the classes open but in reality, the schoolhouse canceled these courses. I am just glad its all over with, and even though not as many courses are available, soldiers are able to continue to go to NCOES

Response by MG Peter Bosse made Nov 8 at 2013 1:31 PM

MG Peter Bosse — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:31:34 -0500

Great responses. Thank you all. We've been through this cycle before in the 1990's. We seem to be entering a military/defense contraction cycle commonly referred to as "the peace dividend". Unfortunately, we don't seem to learn from history since we are often inadequately prepared for the next conflict. Part of the challenge is identifying what and where that conflict may arise. But the other part of the challenge is maintaining adequate funding support for a training and readiness posture that, not unlike a coiled spring, is ready to respond to any eventuality that may threaten the security of the United States of America.

Response by SSgt James Stanley made Nov 8 at 2013 8:08 PM

SSgt James Stanley — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 20:08:04 -0500

Fortunately, I was not impacted by the government shutdown.

Response by SSgt James Stanley made Nov 8 at 2013 8:09 PM

SSgt James Stanley — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 20:09:26 -0500

Fortunately, I was not impacted by the government shutdown.