Military Needs to Make Up Its Mind
Once again I’m left baffled. I just read an article where because of war spending, we military families may lose post services and programs. But I thought we had the Army Family Covenant. I thought the DOD was doing MORE to support or military families, not less. I guess once again, that’s all lip service.
Can anyone tell me why we pay so much for housing if some of the services we have come to enjoy could be cut? I thought that was the point in paying our BAH to live on post to the housing company.
OK, so you could use the argument that we don’t pay heat or electric because we’re in old and unmetered housing. But two things. One, I’d be pissed beyond belief if I had to pay for heat in this house. The windows leak like you wouldn’t believe, and our one bedroom and bathroom hardly get any heat in winter or air conditioning in summer. The heating and cooling system is so uneven and inefficient it’s ridiculous. Two, the new houses are metered. Granted if you are below what’s considered the average usage for that house you get a credit, if you go above, you have to pay the difference.
In our case, we live on a small post. I’m not sure where they can cut much more. We don’t have a lot of stuff for the kids from what I can tell, and what we do have is mostly for kids 10 and older, i.e. those who have their own ID card. Even a lot of the activities have fees. I know the art classes and summer camp have fees comparable to their civilian counterparts.
Our commissary and PX close at 6pm every day, 4pm on Sundays. They’re not even open on Mondays. Even our health clinic closes at noon every Thursday.
I’ve come to find out that there are a lot of spouses who don’t drive. They rely on the services on post that they can walk and bike to get there.
It’s not only about the active duty members at each post. The DOD needs to remember that things like the commissary, PX, and clinic very often service retirees and reserve component members and their families. I know at our clinic there are MANY retirees who travel hours to get their medications there because they can’t afford them otherwise. Same with the commissary. I used to drive about two hours for the case lot sales to save my family money. If we were down here for another reason, we’d stop at the commissary and stock up on the items that are cheaper than the regular grocery store. Many retirees do this as well to save themselves money.
So lets make up our minds, shall we? Are we doing more to improve the quality of life for military families, or are we cutting services to them to save money? I’m confused because the rhetoric has been to improve the quality of life for the families.
*Picture is of a house we looked at to live in on post.
**Edited to add that I saw this link go out on Twitter later in the day saying that funding for soldiers and their families is a priority. Interesting since there was an article in our post newspaper saying post funding was reduced fairly significantly for this small installation this year, and they were trying to figure out how to make cuts in an already tight budget. Unless the funding is only a priority for the large installations which is often the case.
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This is another example of where some of the money we so willingly give away to others would be put to better use….
I get infuriated when I hear stuff like this.
Kim @ What’s That Smell?´s last blog ..She’s no baby
I blame Obama.
That sucks giant donkey balls, Amanda. Our military families deserve MORE not less.
This would NOT be happening if I was running this country.
Just sayin…
Shan @ Last Shreds Of Sanity´s last blog ..Oh My, 39?!?!?
It totally sucks. I hate that they are trying to “charge” military families for their utilities now. Its one of the reasons I don’t ever live on post, the rules, the regs, the charging me for some random thing that they think its chargeable. I hate that I can live in the same exact house that a pvt lives in…my husband has been in for 10 years…shouldn’t he get something a little better than the pvt that has the same amount of kids?? Military families do deserve more, we have to go through so much, and now they want to take some of the benefits away from us? Ugh!
Stephanie´s last blog ..Wow, camera goodies!
I have never dealt with these issues because I met my husband after he left the military. But my little sister lived on post in when she was stationed in Arizona. She hated everyday of it.
I am sorry you are having to deal with this. Our military families deserve more.
Jessica @ Riding with jessica´s last blog ..I Got A New Camera!
I agree that it sucks there cutting services. When I lived at Hunter it was a small post but most people there had new housing. We did have a charge for lights but it was only if you want over a certain amount. The PX and Commi closed earlier and on Mondays and I hated that.
I now live on Schofield in Hawaii and I love the PX is open until 9 but once again I notice the services seem to be different on bigger post.
We have heard also that we might lose the lawn maintenance services and so forth which I think sicks terribly!
How frustrating and annoying and flat crap. The families and members of the military in my belief deserve so much and yet I keep hearing how they get crap. It makes me frustrated and sad beyond belief.
Well said!! Unfortunately they are trying to charge those of us in the older houses for electric & gas here on this post!! Not sure where you live but we live on Forbes & they’ve been checking our meters for the last couple weeks trying to get them straight. We asked the maintanence guy & he said they are planning to charge. I certainly hope he’s wrong because the windows in our house do not match. If you push up on the top window the bottom comes up, if you push down the top comes down. We have drafts coming in them all the time. We also have two heat/ AC units one in our basement & one in the attic!!
Renee, that is INSANE! They’re going to charge you for such an energy inefficient houses? OY! I’d be bitching to everyone who will listen. We’re still unmetered here in “Smurf Village.” Our house was supposed to be torn down last summer to make way for new, but with budget cuts who knows when that’ll happen now. Of course the new houses are just slapped together, so it’s just replacing one bad situation with another bad one. The maintenance guys complain that they’re at the new housing almost every day if you ask them. Oh, and our furnace that got almost all new parts last February – we had to get a new blower at the end of this January too. I could write a book on this place.
This is just so wrong on so many levels. We have an all volunteer military and they are treating them so poorly, yet there are so many people on welfare who do not try to work or use it as a crutch. (I am NOT saying that all people on welfare are like this, but there are several.)
We should be treating those in the military and their families who are left at home to carry on without them so much better.
Lorie Shewbridge´s last blog ..Mommy and Me Monday