The Patriot Files Forums  

Go Back   The Patriot Files Forums > Branch Posts > Coast Guard

Post New Thread  Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 01-17-2019, 06:31 AM
Boats's Avatar
Boats Boats is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Sauk Village, IL
Posts: 21,783
Arrow Coast Guard members in Bahrain feel the effects of the government shutdown

Coast Guard members in Bahrain feel the effects of the government shutdown
By: JOSHUA KARSTEN | STARS AND STRIPES / Published: January 17, 2019
RE: https://www.stripes.com/news/coast-g...tdown-1.564839

Photo link: https://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/..._900/image.jpg
A group photo of the U.S. Coast Guard Patrol Forces in Southwest Asia taken in December 2018. Members of the Coast Guard's largest overseas unit, with about 240 active-duty members, are officially working without pay.

BAHRAIN — Like their colleagues back home, hundreds of Coast Guard members in Bahrain are working without pay due to the partial government shutdown. The different is that the “Coasties” in Bahrain face a potential adversary nearby in Iran.

In sharp contrast to the service’s tasks back home, the contingent based in Bahrain is at the center of growing tensions between Washington and Tehran, which is furious over President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and re-impose sanctions on that country. The Coast Guard was first deployed to the Gulf in 2002, and now has a permanent presence as it helps bolster naval power in the region at the request of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

The force is there “because of our unique skillsets and expertise,” said Capt. J. Paul Gregg, the unit’s commodore. These include maritime interdiction. training foreign forces, port security and preventing smuggling.

But, while operating tactically under the Navy, the Coast Guard still falls under the Department of Homeland Security and its members here are among the 42,000 of the service’s officers and enlisted personnel who, along with some 800,000 federal workers, are having to make ends meet as best they can for the past several weeks.

Defense Department appropriations were approved last year, allowing funding for most of the armed services to continue when Congress failed to reach an agreement before Christmas to to fund the government. President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers sought funding for a wall along the border with Mexico, but Democrats balked. The deadlock has forced federal workers to be sent on furlough or to work without pay.

“The U.S. Coast Guard has been proactively communicating the impacts of the lapse in appropriations across the service,” Gregg said of the shutdown. “As a unit, we have been proactive in sharing those communications, and working with our people on an individual level to help them both plan and seek assistance if needed, as the lapse in appropriations continues.”

Across the Coast Guard, support resources available to servicemembers include financial counseling, loans, information and aid from other military support organizations. This week, the service’s commandant announced that the USAA insurance and financial services company had donated $15 million, which officials said would be used to fund interest-free loans for about two week’s worth of bills.

“There are many resources available to their dependents back home,” said Senior Chief Ryan Doss, a spokesperson for Coast Guard Atlantic Area, the Bahrain team’s parent command. “By engaging with our deployed members here ... we hope to minimize the personal impacts [of the shutdown] on our crews and their families.”

The Coast Guard unit, made up of about 240 active-duty servicemembers, operates six Island Class patrol boats permanently stationed at Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

The cutters perform a variety of missions including patrols, exercises and joint engagements with allies in the region. All members are serving one-year, unaccompanied assignments and “just over half” are supporting dependents stateside according to Gregg.

Despite attempts in Washington to push the money through, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz confirmed Tuesday in a statement that the mid-January paychecks were not coming, saying it marked the first time he was aware of when servicemembers in one of the armed forces branches haven’t been paid during a shutdown.

The Coast Guard also created a Lapse in Appropriations Guide website for Coast Guard members that provides information, tips and resources, such as letters to send to creditors that explain the situation.

Fortunately for Coast Guard members in Bahrain, they live in government-leased housing off base, meaning they won’t have to worry about impatient landlords. That’s a relief for many, given the high cost of living in Bahrain, where average rents range from over $2,000 a month for single junior enlisted sailors to over $3,000 a month for chiefs or junior officers with dependents.

“I mean, it sucks,” a Coast Guardsman on base told Stars and Stripes, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities surrounding the shutdown. Still, he remained optimistic that he would get his money “sooner or later.”
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:23 AM.


Powered by vBulletin, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.