Thousands of military families struggle
with food insecurity

How about the FJB administration can the illegal alien $1 million dollar give away for breaking our laws and give it to some of the most important people serving America? Our military. This is disgusting and should not be happening. Someone needs to step up and get this taken care of.

$450,000 for someone who broke the law coming to our country and the children of our fighting men and women, the ones who protect this country with their lives, are going hungry. Our Republic is lost and we let it happen. Little by little. One small step backwards at a time and here we are. Hold on folks. We’re going on for a hard landing. A real hard landing.

Our standards of lives need to be sharply reduced, along with our expectations and national pride. Almost as if we're being conditioned for a takeover of some sort.

Back in the 60’s during the Vietnam war, I was an 18-year-old U.S. Marine. One of the first things I learned was “if the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one.” I made $40 every two weeks. When I made E-4 a year later, I made $80 every two weeks. When I left the Corps after four years, I was a Sergeant, and still making less than a hundred bucks a week. Anybody with half a brain knew that if you had less than 4 years’ service, having a family was a bad choice. Nothing has changed in the last 50 years. You’re going to get deployed to somewhere far away, and you may not make it back alive. In the meantime, whatever they pay you won’t be enough to keep a family going. As my father, an old Navy Chief, used to tell me: “I feel for you, but I can’t quite reach you.” My sympathy for these people extends only so far. Life is tough - but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.

Does food insecurity ever happen because people don't know how to s-t-r-e-t-c-h their food dollars?

Even with Base and Post Exchanges?

I remember when I enlisted in the Army in 1960 at the age of 17, the monthly pay for a recruit E-1 was $78.00 a month. We were paid once a month and on payday deductions were taken out of that pay for the Red Cross, for haircuts, and of course taxes. After that we ended up with three twenty dollar bills each month. Most guys who joined the Army in those years as recruit E-1s were not married and did not have children. It was different for some draftees who could be drafted out of the blue up to 26 years of age. Five months later I found myself on an old troopship headed for South Korea, that took about a month, where I was stationed for about 13 months as an infantryman carrying a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) that weighed about 20 pounds plus ammunition and other equipment running up and down the hills (humping the Yamas) just South of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) along the border with North Korea. When I flew back to the USA I was an E-4 making maybe a hundred dollars a month. You would have to be very stupid under such financial circumstances to have a family that would financially. Tours in Alaska, Germany, and Vietnam followed, but in those years even with several promotions the military basic pay was low compared to the pay restructuring that went along with the all volunteer military where the basic pay and allowances increased. But there is no doubt today military members in pay grades E-1 through E-4 face the same financial problems. While Biden and the leftist and socialist Democrats are pleased as punch to handout $450,000 to illegal aliens who unlawfully violated US law by unlawfully entering the USA to settle bogus law suits, not a peep about raising the pay of the lower military ranks in this modern era.

Bullstuff. Hard to feed the kids, but Fido gets his... Time we either recognize the military is a place for family fun, or stop recruiting those married. Enlistments should be "enriched" for those willing to sign a 10-year enlistment contract and forgo families, paid for by cutting "family programs." For the others, get rid of the dog and the late model car while you're complaining. Bad optics when claiming "food insecurity."

E1 annual pay is about $21,400, E4 is increased to about $28,000. The fundamental problem is that the military does not expect these ranks, all very young people, to have families to support. A typical E1 is a 19 year old, and he has housing, food, and clothing provided or paid for (clothing allowance). I have not tried to live on this, but I have two nephews who have, and as single men, they had no problems. With a wife and a couple of kids.....not going to be easy, but perhaps that is bad planning to have a wife and kids at that age, with that income.

#3 the takeover already happened on January 6. #2 "the ones who protect our country"???? I don't think so. If that was the case, they would have not allowed the dictatorship to go forward.

All military have access to the PX or Navy Exchange stores where everything is is discounted. I don't know how much of a bargain they are but they used to be quite the deal. Also in SD there are many low cost housing units for just the military, called Navy housing. Funny how this isn't mentioned in the AP propaganda piece.

It wasn’t that long ago that one had to be an E-4 with over 4 years of service before you were authorized any allowances for dependents. Of course then the military decided that you were entitled to a family that you couldn’t afford. See how well that turned out.

The whole world takes advantage of younger enlisted military people. Rentals around military installations are sky high, forcing people to live with roommates and grocery money often is not sufficient. If you are single and live on base, you escape most of the squeeze but if you are married, forget it. San Diego is probably twice as bad as most places and it has been that way for decades.

These days, Exchanges are loaded wiith designer stuff - clothing sunglasses, watches - which young enlistees feel compelled to buy. Styrofoam cups of cheap coffee don't exist on base anympre - it's Starbucks or nothing. And there was a time when 1 or 2 guys in your shipboard division had cars (used, of course) and they were everybody's pals. Now, you can't find a parking spot anywhere along the waterfront. Life is about choices.

As the widow of a retired military, I can shop at the base/post commissary and exchange. I no longer shop there very often. I can find most of what I want cheaper, and often better quality, at local stores or big box (i. e. Walmart, Costco, Sam’s) stores. The commissary also adds 5% to your bill to pay for store updates or new stores. It also seems like items I used to buy there are no longer carried.

#11, unfortunately, the Exchange and Commissary are nothing remotely like they were when I grew up as a USN brat in '50s and 60s. Then the government provided the buildings, and covered all basic operating costs, such as electricity, etc. This greatly reduced overhead. Apparently this is no longer true. From what I know today from talking to relatives who are active duty, both the PX/Navy Exchange and Commissaries are pretty much on par with prices elsewhere, with the sole advantage of no taxes on purchases. If they live on base, there is a convenience factor, plus the lack of taxes. I shopped in a PX on Twentynine Palms USMC base a couple of years ago with a relative, prices weren't noticeably cheaper. Perhaps 5-10%, but maybe nothing. OTOH....shopping in 29 Palms is pretty limited off base, and the PX was nice.

I was a brat in the 60s70s,then apparently, being a slow learner, I did 8 for myself. E4 father 3 kids ..money always tight,but doable no work for mom. Once we got base housing it was better. PX/BX is like a high end store, fantastic quality and slight discount prices, we NEVER shopped there. Way too expensive. We went to kmart. The Commissary is the exception. Great prices on grocery items now E7 father and still broke. Beer was cheaper than milk. When it was my turn I knew better. I did have friends that were already married when they got in, I helped out when I could. Kids in those first 2yrs would have been tough. Oh, what they aren't telling you is you wee an E1 for 6mos, E2 for another 6, E3 after a year, and E4 one more year, with a possible promotion at 6mos. We are talking very tough for 1 year, not so bad after 2 yrs. If you have a brain cell, fresh outta school, how many kids you gonna have????

Appendium. We were always on food stamps and free school lunches.

I have never forgotten the 12 yr old army child who killed himself 25 yrs ago so his brothers and sisters would have more food to eat. Shame on the brass and their wives who live high off the hog while the men can't feed their families.

Citizens and the military can suffer while the Biden/Harris Administration lavish goodies on illegal aliens! Whoever saId the country is being run upside-down is right!

Sorry, but the country's top priority is supporting the illegals coming into the country. They vote the right way, and the military does not.