Brooke Millard was the executive officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Tall Ship Eagle stationed along the East Coast in December 2018 and into January 2019 during the previous — and longest — federal government shutdown that stretched into 35 days and damaged morale among her crew of 50 enlisted “coasties” and officers who had to report to work without pay.
Millard, now a retired Coast Guard commander married to an active-duty Coast Guard commander, “saw a bunch of thriving, amazing people who still had to do their job,” she said. “But they were distracted” and spent time at work searching for restaurants and other places that would provide free food and other discounts for them and their families.
Some of her crew ended their shifts only to work side jobs at night driving for ride-sharing services or working as bar bouncers to generate income.
Many also were “dual-income families working for the same organization without pay and I was one of them,” Millard said. “So many coasties were already living paycheck to paycheck.”
Morale quickly plummeted as bills, loans, car payments, mortgages and rent piled up, adding to the financial stress on Coast Guard families, she said.
Aboard the Tall Ship Eagle — and stretching across the country to Coast Guard families based in Hawaii — Millard said “it absolutely tanked morale.”
It took weeks, if not months, after paychecks resumed for morale to return to pre-shutdown levels while causing some Coast Guard families to question America’s commitment to them, she said.
With the current shutdown entering its third week with no end in sight, Millard expects history to repeat itself exponentially now with all the other branches of military service — including an estimated 48,500 active-duty service members and reservists based in Hawaii — now joining the Coast Guard in having to report for duty without pay.
“It’s going to be bad and people (military families) are going to be getting nervous when they start missing their first paycheck” on the first and 15th of each month, she said.
Based on her last shutdown experience, Millard said the current situation will hurt morale among all branches of the military, and “it could take weeks to months to rebuild morale.”
Some relief may be forthcoming, however, with the New York Times reporting that President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had identified about $8 billion in unspent funds from the prior fiscal year that would allow the government to pay military members during the federal shutdown, even though Congress has not approved additional money for the troops.
According to the Times, Pentagon officials said the money would be used “to issue mid-month paychecks to service members in the event the funding lapse continues” beyond Wednesday, the next date they are set to be paid.
The spouse of a Hawaii-based Navy officer was already worried as news of a shutdown became more of a possibility.
She spoke to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation against her husband, who received his Navy paycheck during the last shutdown, but not this time.
They have a young child and bought their “dream house” on Oahu that cost well over $1 million and is badly in need of renovation and currently has no working kitchen or bathroom.
Renovations are now on hold.
“I don’t think you could possibly increase the tension in a household with a toddler and no kitchen and no bathroom,” the Navy spouse said. “But this might be the one thing. It could be bad.”
She grew up in a military family that moved constantly but remained committed to serving the country.
Now, she said, “We signed up to defend the Constitution and are absolutely committed to going wherever the Navy sends us. But everything that’s happening now has soured me as a person. Now we’re working for an organization that no longer serves us. All of our eggs are in this basket because we don’t have a Plan B.”
They also own a home on the mainland that they rent to another military family also now working without pay, meaning the Hawaii couple has to pay two mortgages with no reliable full-time salary of their own and no idea when their next rental payment will arrive.
“Money is a huge stressor on relationships,” the Navy spouse said. “For military families already in Hawaii, I worry about them being isolated and separated from friends and family, and now they’re going without pay with no friends and family. Now you have this large population that’s also not spending money here. … For us, we’re trying to ride the wave and see what happens.”
Millard now serves as CEO of the nonprofit organization Coast Guard Mutual Assistance that’s dedicated to helping service members survive economic emergencies through grants and no-interest, paycheck-replacement loans.
During the last federal shutdown during Trump’s first term, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance provided $180,000 in grants and no-interest loans to 140 of the approximately 1,200 Coast Guardsmen stationed in Hawaii at the time, she said.
Several Hawaii financial institutions are offering loan payment deferral programs for military and other federal employees working without pay during the current shutdown.
On Friday, the Trump administration said it had begun “substantial” federal layoffs that are estimated to affect thousands of civilian employees spread across multiple federal agencies that have been under fire since Trump returned to the White House in January.
NBC News cited a Justice Department filing that at least 4,000 workers in seven federal agencies were sent layoff notices. According to NBC, the Treasury and Health departments were the hardest hit by the layoffs and represented more than half of the fired affected employees.
Before the latest government shutdown, the University of Hawaii’s Economic Research Organization already had forecast that Hawaii’s sluggish 2025 economy was heading toward a “mild recession” next year.
Carl Bonham, UHERO’s executive director, previously told the Star-Advertiser that fears of a government shutdown were likely already causing federal employees — including active-duty service members — to reduce local spending, especially at businesses, bars and restaurants around military bases, in addition to postponing purchases such as major appliances and vehicles.
Source: The Garden Island
Be First to Comment