# Did the military not get paid at any time during Obama's administration? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963 "2012-10-17T03:25:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/21 "2012-10-18T00:38:33Z")
> [@BunnyTVS](#): > > If he was a Seahawk gunner with an M240 he could go through those 256 rounds in about 20 seconds. Exactly, and a mini gun spews out something like 2,000 round a minute. An automatic weapon could burn through a million rounds quite rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/22 "2012-10-18T01:30:32Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Wildly unlikely, unless sometime in the last seven years the DoD revised its pay schedule. Payday was every two weeks. Period. Since when? I was in from early 1982 until late 2003; payday was always twice a month (15th and last day through Sep 87; thereafter 1st and 15th). Maximum possible time between cheques was 19 days. ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/23 "2012-10-18T01:55:27Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > What? That’s 4,109 rounds per day (assuming he is ‘training’ as a gunner every single day of the year. If they keep him firing every hour of the day except for 8 hours sleeping (no lunch or bathroom breaks, do that at your gun) that’s 256 rounds per hour. Quite a training regimen. He must be a _really good_ gunner by now. > > But I just don’t see that as such a “severe cutback”. Fast boat gunner. 256 rounds an hour is, btw, not a big deal for anyone (less than 5 rounds per minute). You’re aware that we have guns that capable of more than 1,500 rps, right? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/24 "2012-10-18T15:19:00Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Since when? I was in from early 1982 until late 2003; payday was always twice a month (15th and last day through Sep 87; thereafter 1st and 15th). Maximum possible time between cheques was 19 days. Slight correction, in my military service, which was from 1979 to 2003, it was the 15th and 30th, not the last day. If that day was on a Saturday or Sunday, it was on Friday when “the eagle shitted” and you could end up with the dreaded three weekend payday in an era of no ATMs. The 30th was changed to the 1st as part of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit bill which said we could reduce the deficit for 1987 (the government fiscal year ends September 30th) by postponing government expenditures until 1988. With great political leadership like that, it’s no wonder that the debt is $16,000,000,000,00. There was some kind of scare during the Reagan years that we won’t get paid..I remember a meeting where the CO assured us that we would get our checks (we did). But I am 100% sure that people got paid under Obama, unless it was some individual mistake that can happen at anytime. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/25 "2012-10-18T17:56:08Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > From the kindest, wisest Philosopher King, down to the most depraved tyrannical baby-killing dictator, one thing EVERY successful leader does is . . . > > - . . . keep your soldiers paid and well-fed! \* Dunno about well-fed (obligatory military chow joke), but we have been paid regularly all through the Obama administation, as well as through the whole year and a half of the Bush administration that I was serving during (for point of reference). While I’m sure some individuals didn’t get paid at one time or another, it would have had nothing to do with the budget. Most likely it would be for a case like someone getting overpaid for an extended period of time and Finance cutting off their paychecks until the troop has earned all the extra pay (check your paystubs, and do try to be aware of what you _should_ be getting paid). Finance is one of those jobs in the military where a screw up really can affect anyone, whereas a maintainer screwing up may only affect a pilot directly. 😃 But yeah, budget-wise, we never missed a paycheck. We got a raise every year, too, if I’m not mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/26 "2012-10-18T18:49:40Z")
Previous poster can blow it off as hand wringing but there was so serious thought as to what would happen with a government shut down. Despite the assurances from the administration those high up in the military were not sure if pay checks would come. Contingency plans were being made to help take care of families. Without a doubt all training would have stopped and no reserve side drills would occur. I was confident that it wouldn’t happen because it would be political suicide. It came close but a compromise was reached. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/27 "2012-10-19T16:19:01Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Previous poster can blow it off as hand wringing but there was so serious thought as to what would happen with a government shut down. Despite the assurances from the administration those high up in the military were not sure if pay checks would come. Contingency plans were being made to help take care of families. Without a doubt all training would have stopped and no reserve side drills would occur. I was confident that it wouldn’t happen because it would be political suicide. It came close but a compromise was reached. Horse shoes and hand grenades. The OP asked if the troops ever missed a paycheck during the Obama administration, not whether it nearly happened. That said, there are many ways to save money, especially if you know you might be getting cut off in the near future. Lots of nonessential work gets stopped, nonessential supplies (such as spare parts that you normally keep on hand in case you need them, such as plywood, screws, sheet metal, wire, etc.) don’t get ordered yet, and you train and fly less to save money on associated costs. For individual troops, that means they need to have some money saved up (which lots of folks don’t, unfortunately), or at least a credit card they can use in the short term (assuming they’re responsible enough to pay it back once they get paid). There are also non-profit organizations (at least in the Air Force) that are able to provide some assistance to make sure military members don’t have to resort to payday loans or anything similarly foolish to pay the bills. ---
**Author:** ![blackdog907](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f05b48/32.png) [@blackdog907](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackdog907)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/28 "2012-10-31T00:54:29Z")
To bring it back to initial question on this thread, yes. I deployed to Afghanistan on April 14th, 2011 and did not receive a full paycheck on the 15th. They told us it was probably gonna happen, but we would be get back pay eventually. It was kind of like your employer saying sorry about your last paycheck bouncing but I need you to fly over to the other side of the world and put you life on the line in a war zone for me… Unfortunately, until we figure out how to budget our money a little better you won’t get paid for a while, but you’ll get credit for the time you work. If you were shorted the majority of your paycheck, the first question you’d ask is why? If the response is I had trouble budgeting the money. You are probably asking is this company going bankrupt? Or maybe saying are the boss’s spending habits bad enough to bring the business down completely? Either way you’re getting your resume ready. Not writing a will and making sure your life insurance is in order. The last month you have with your family is hard enough to go through as it is. Will this be the last time I ever do this with my family? What if I never see them again? At best you are going to miss an entire year in their lives. Walking and words turned in running and sentences while you were gone. Losing a year with the woman you love which you can never have back. The last thing you want to be thinking about is what if I am no longer able to take care of my babies when I am gone? Luckily people were very understanding about the whole thing and would let service members push some bills back, but not all of them. Also some last minute legislation was passed so the troops that were deployed would still get paid regardless of what was happening with the budget. So after I was in Afghanistan for a little while I started getting paid regularly again and they eventually got around to paying me back. I will say this they fixed the situation fairly fast, but why did it come to this? For one thing the fiscal year for the gov’t ends in Oct. and they still haven’t figured out the budget 6 months later??? 6 stop-gap spending bills have passed by congress because they couldn’t come to an agreement. Realize that both sides used not paying the military against each other. Obama said that he was going to veto any more “continuing resolutions” without a budget plan. Unfortunately, military payrolls were included in the “continuing resolutions.” Congress called his bluff and Obama eventually signed a 7th stop-gap bill to allowing government employees to to be paid through the 15th. Unfortunately it happened on the 11th and payroll had all ready gone out for many people. “Congress did consider legislation that would permanently exempt the military from any pay delays, but Congressional leaders balked at such a bill because they feel the threat of troops not getting paid keeps negotiators at the table.” [http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militarypay/a/2011paylegislation.htm](http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militarypay/a/2011paylegislation.htm) “In fact, the Senate last month unanimously passed a bill that would eliminate pay for lawmakers but the bill has stalled in the House. Meanwhile, the House version of the budget bill — the one that is at the heart of the disagreement that could lead to a shutdown — also includes such language. But if there’s a shutdown, it will be because the bill didn’t pass — and neither will the provision restricting Congressional pay.” [Will Members of Congress Get Paid in a Shutdown? - The New York Times](http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/will-members-of-congress-get-paid-in-a-shutdown/) Truly bipartisanism at its best they can’t even agree to stop paying themselves if the government shuts down. But lets be honest did anyone think they were really gonna change the 27th amendment? No, of course not. It just looks good when a bunch of Senators say I don’t deserve to get paid because we can’t come to an agreement on the budget 6 months into the new fiscal year while members of the military could be forced to fight a war without being paid or rather being paid on credit until they eventually reach an agreement. At which point in time most federal employees are hoping Congress included authorization for the time you were working on credit in the new budget of the current fiscal year. I say “hoping” but this should pretty much be a given because who would vote down federal employees being back paid especially when a large number of them were working in a war zone. Roughly 150,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is important to remember as disturbing as it is that the President would use the military not getting paid as leverage against the house, the House Budget Committee, led by chairman and Rep VP Nom Paul Ryan had the audacity to call his bluff. Which led to Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget proposal being approved on April 15th, 2011 by the house. It is very sad that the reason they didn’t follow through on any legislation to prevent this from happening to service members again is that they feel withholding their pay is too strong of a bargaining chip. I will leave on this note there was never a finalized budget for the fiscal year of 2011!! Both sides used this as leverage against each other and still can, yet they couldn’t come up with a budget. WHICH MEANS DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS IT DOESN’T MATTER YOUR ALL TO BLAME!!! FUCK ALL OF YOU!!! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/29 "2012-10-31T01:21:31Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > During the entire Obama administration, for most members of the military, there were anywhere between 27 and 30 days in each and every month when they did not receive a paycheck. 26 and 29, actually. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/30 "2012-10-31T01:25:01Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Wildly unlikely, unless sometime in the last seven years the DoD revised its pay schedule. Payday was every two weeks. Period. Really? That gives 26 paychecks/year. When I was in (1980-1991) we got paid on the 15th and 30th (except February, of course). Did they change that? ---
**Author:** ![blackdog907](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f05b48/32.png) [@blackdog907](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackdog907)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/31 "2012-10-31T01:42:50Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I’m fairly sure this didn’t actually happen but an actual military person is telling me it did. > [@GiantRat](#): > > Ummm… hogwash. > > There were some sever cutbacks in certain areas (about which some service members are less than pleased). But they still got paid. > [@Senegoid](#): > > From the kindest, wisest Philosopher King, down to the most depraved tyrannical baby-killing dictator, one thing EVERY successful leader does is . . . > > - . . . keep your soldiers paid and well-fed! \* > > [sub]Even who-da-guy, boss in N. Korea, understands that.[/sub] > [@cckerberos](#): > > Actually, I’ve read that he has trouble with that. > [@Batfish](#): > > Yeah? Name one. > [@Smapti](#): > > Is your friend on _the drugs_? > [@anson2995](#): > > During the “debt crisis” in spring of 2011, there was a threat that unless Congress reached some sort of agreement, there would be a government shutdown. This led to all sorts of hand-wringing over [whether soldiers in combat areas would be asked to fight while not being paid](http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/03/military-contingency-plan-government-shutdown-031111w/). The Secretary of Defense said “[relax, you’ll all get paid](http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/152583/288/Gates-Military-will-get-paid-just-may-not-be-on-time).” The phony crisis never materialized, nobody ever missed a day of pay, but that did stop the crazies on the message boards from reporting that [SOLDIERS](http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/serious-discussion/123492-us-military-not-getting-paid.html) [AREN’T](http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread674793/pg1) [BEING](http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/60548-rumor-us-military-not-paying-soldiers/) [PAID](http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=203790.0). > > That’s how politics works, folks. > [@fumster](#): > > The short answer is that the Op’s friend is lying or stupid; and if it _is_ a lie, it’s a stupid lie. Who believe’s this shit? > [@solosam](#): > > Cute. :rolleyes: > > Anyway, they always got paid. As above, there was some mention of soldiers going unpaid during various budget crises. The official guidance was that they would still show up to work and then get their payment in arrears after Congress resolved the issue. > > Obviously, nobody likes this prospect and in each case Congress passed emergency funding to keep the military running, even if the rest of the government had to take shut-down days. > [@gnoitall](#): > > Wildly unlikely, unless sometime in the last seven years the DoD revised its pay schedule. Payday was every two weeks. Period. > [@Raguleader](#): > > Dunno about well-fed (obligatory military chow joke), but we have been paid regularly all through the Obama administation, as well as through the whole year and a half of the Bush administration that I was serving during (for point of reference). > > While I’m sure some individuals didn’t get paid at one time or another, it would have had nothing to do with the budget. Most likely it would be for a case like someone getting overpaid for an extended period of time and Finance cutting off their paychecks until the troop has earned all the extra pay (check your paystubs, and do try to be aware of what you _should_ be getting paid). Finance is one of those jobs in the military where a screw up really can affect anyone, whereas a maintainer screwing up may only affect a pilot directly. 😃 > > But yeah, budget-wise, we never missed a paycheck. We got a raise every year, too, if I’m not mistaken. > [@Loach](#): > > Previous poster can blow it off as hand wringing but there was so serious thought as to what would happen with a government shut down. Despite the assurances from the administration those high up in the military were not sure if pay checks would come. Contingency plans were being made to help take care of families. Without a doubt all training would have stopped and no reserve side drills would occur. I was confident that it wouldn’t happen because it would be political suicide. It came close but a compromise was reached. > [@Raguleader](#): > > Horse shoes and hand grenades. The OP asked if the troops ever missed a paycheck during the Obama administration, not whether it nearly happened. > > That said, there are many ways to save money, especially if you know you might be getting cut off in the near future. Lots of nonessential work gets stopped, nonessential supplies (such as spare parts that you normally keep on hand in case you need them, such as plywood, screws, sheet metal, wire, etc.) don’t get ordered yet, and you train and fly less to save money on associated costs. > > For individual troops, that means they need to have some money saved up (which lots of folks don’t, unfortunately), or at least a credit card they can use in the short term (assuming they’re responsible enough to pay it back once they get paid). There are also non-profit organizations (at least in the Air Force) that are able to provide some assistance to make sure military members don’t have to resort to payday loans or anything similarly foolish to pay the bills. To bring it back to initial question on this thread, yes. I deployed to Afghanistan on April 14th, 2011 and did not receive a full paycheck on the 15th. They told us it was probably gonna happen, but we would be get back pay eventually. It was kind of like your employer saying sorry about your last paycheck bouncing but I need you to fly over to the other side of the world and put you life on the line in a war zone for me… Unfortunately, until we figure out how to budget our money a little better you won’t get paid for a while, but you’ll get credit for the time you work. If you were shorted the majority of your paycheck, the first question you’d ask is why? If the response is I had trouble budgeting the money. You are probably asking is this company going bankrupt? Or maybe saying are the boss’s spending habits bad enough to bring the business down completely? Either way you’re getting your resume ready. Not writing a will and making sure your life insurance is in order. The last month you have with your family is hard enough to go through as it is. Will this be the last time I ever do this with my family? What if I never see them again? At best you are going to miss an entire year in their lives. Walking and words turned in running and sentences while you were gone. Losing a year with the woman you love which you can never have back. The last thing you want to be thinking about is what if I am no longer able to take care of my babies when I am gone? Luckily people were very understanding about the whole thing and would let service members push some bills back, but not all of them. Also some last minute legislation was passed so the troops that were deployed would still get paid regardless of what was happening with the budget. So after I was in Afghanistan for a little while I started getting paid regularly again and they eventually got around to paying me back. I will say this they fixed the situation fairly fast, but why did it come to this? For one thing the fiscal year for the gov’t ends in Oct. and they still haven’t figured out the budget 6 months later??? 6 stop-gap spending bills have passed by congress because they couldn’t come to an agreement. Realize that both sides used not paying the military against each other. Obama said that he was going to veto any more “continuing resolutions” without a budget plan. Unfortunately, military payrolls were included in the “continuing resolutions.” Congress called his bluff and Obama eventually signed a 7th stop-gap bill to allowing government employees to to be paid through the 15th. Unfortunately it happened on the 11th and payroll had all ready gone out for many people. “Congress did consider legislation that would permanently exempt the military from any pay delays, but Congressional leaders balked at such a bill because they feel the threat of troops not getting paid keeps negotiators at the table.” [http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militarypay/a/2011paylegislation.htm](http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militarypay/a/2011paylegislation.htm) “In fact, the Senate last month unanimously passed a bill that would eliminate pay for lawmakers but the bill has stalled in the House. Meanwhile, the House version of the budget bill — the one that is at the heart of the disagreement that could lead to a shutdown — also includes such language. But if there’s a shutdown, it will be because the bill didn’t pass — and neither will the provision restricting Congressional pay.” [http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/will-members-of-congress-get-paid-in-a-shutdown/](http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/will-members-of-congress-get-paid-in-a-shutdown/) Truly bipartisanism at its best they can’t even agree to stop paying themselves if the government shuts down. But lets be honest did anyone think they were really gonna change the 27th amendment? No, of course not. It just looks good when a bunch of Senators say I don’t deserve to get paid because we can’t come to an agreement on the budget 6 months into the new fiscal year while members of the military could be forced to fight a war without being paid or rather being paid on credit until they eventually reach an agreement. At which point in time most federal employees are hoping Congress included authorization for the time you were working on credit in the new budget of the current fiscal year. I say “hoping” but this should pretty much be a given because who would vote down federal employees being back paid especially when a large number of them were working in a war zone. Roughly 150,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is important to remember as disturbing as it is that the President would use the military not getting paid as leverage against the house, the House Budget Committee, led by chairman and Rep VP Nom Paul Ryan had the audacity to call his bluff. Which led to Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget proposal being approved on April 15th, 2011 by the house. It is very sad that the reason they didn’t follow through on any legislation to prevent this from happening to service members again is that they feel withholding their pay is too strong of a bargaining chip. I will leave on this note there was never a finalized budget for the fiscal year of 2011!! Both sides used this as leverage against each other and still can, yet they couldn’t come up with a budget. WHICH MEANS DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS IT DOESN’T MATTER YOUR ALL TO BLAME!!! F\*CK ALL OF YOU!!! ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/32 "2012-10-31T02:38:24Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > What? That’s 4,109 rounds per day (assuming he is ‘training’ as a gunner every single day of the year. If they keep him firing every hour of the day except for 8 hours sleeping (no lunch or bathroom breaks, do that at your gun) that’s 256 rounds per hour. Quite a training regimen. He must be a _really good_ gunner by now. > > But I just don’t see that as such a “severe cutback”. If you check out [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlU5hQnLwcY)youtube vid and jump to about 6:20, that’s basiclly what he does. Not hard to go through a few thousand rounds in a day. And 256 rounds an hour would actually take a very short amount of time (shit the M4 fires 750rpm, if I remember correctly). Ammo is easy to burn. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/33 "2012-10-31T03:58:39Z")
There are two ways of parsing the thread title, but it apparently doesn’t matter, since they’re both wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/34 "2012-10-31T05:01:16Z")
> [@GiantRat](#): > > Ammo is easy to burn. Especially when he’s not paying for it, us taxpayers are. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/35 "2012-10-31T05:39:56Z")
> [@GiantRat](#): > > Training, for one. A Navy friend tells me that his annual allotment of ammunition went from 1.5 million rounds per year to 250,000 (he’s a gunner). Several major projects have been de-funded (some for very good reason). And this is true government waste. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/36 "2012-10-31T09:36:21Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I’m fairly sure this didn’t actually happen but an actual military person is telling me it did. Perhaps he’s misremembering the [Invergordon Mutiny](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invergordon_Mutiny) from the Great Depression? ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/37 "2012-10-31T10:33:37Z")
It isn’t clear if Blackdog907’s experience was an Army wide budget issue or related to his unit deploying. We’re you active duty or in a NG unit that deployed? ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/38 "2012-10-31T17:15:46Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > It isn’t clear if Blackdog907’s experience was an Army wide budget issue or related to his unit deploying. We’re you active duty or in a NG unit that deployed? It wasn’t an Army-wide issue. I was deployed to Afghanistan at the same time and received my paychecks regularly. I do recall the hub-bub in October about pay being delayed, but our paychecks came in on time. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/39 "2012-10-31T19:04:11Z")
> [@blackdog907](#): > > To bring it back to initial question on this thread, yes. I deployed to Afghanistan on April 14th, 2011 and did not receive a full paycheck on the 15th. If you _are_ telling the truth–and I don’t believe you are–your personal pay issue had nothing to do with the budget issue. Maybe, as another poster suggested, you are a reserve or National Guard soldier and it took a while for your active pay and entitlements to kick in. But I don’t believe that is the case either. Or maybe by “full paycheck”, you mean “full paycheck with combat benefits and family seperation pay”. If that is the case, then the reason you didn’t get paid that extra money is because it takes more than one day for those entitlements to kick in. And your pay for the 15th is finalized before the 7th of every month. So anything that happens after the 7th will not show up until the paycheck on the 1st. ---
**Author:** ![blackdog907](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f05b48/32.png) [@blackdog907](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackdog907)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2012, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963/40 "2012-11-07T08:09:00Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > If you _are_ telling the truth–and I don’t believe you are–your personal pay issue had nothing to do with the budget issue. Maybe, as another poster suggested, you are a reserve or National Guard soldier and it took a while for your active pay and entitlements to kick in. But I don’t believe that is the case either. > Or maybe by “full paycheck”, you mean “full paycheck with combat benefits and family seperation pay”. If that is the case, then the reason you didn’t get paid that extra money is because it takes more than one day for those entitlements to kick in. And your pay for the 15th is finalized before the 7th of every month. So anything that happens after the 7th will not show up until the paycheck on the 1st. > [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > It wasn’t an Army-wide issue. I was deployed to Afghanistan at the same time and received my paychecks regularly. I do recall the hub-bub in October about pay being delayed, but our paychecks came in on time. > [@tim-n-va](#): > > It isn’t clear if Blackdog907’s experience was an Army wide budget issue or related to his unit deploying. We’re you active duty or in a NG unit that deployed? Many people in the army and my brigade which deployed missed most of that first paycheck. The Government did not approve the budget extension to pay us in time. The gov’t put out that they were not sure when the problem would be fixed. This was a paycheck for the work down the weeks before we deployed!!! I was not expecting my first paycheck to have combat pay or separation pay this wasn’t my first fucking tour!!! DoD that is the department of defense for those that do not know what that is put out a 12 page document describing what to expect if the government shuts down and we could have not gotten paid until August/Sept if it happened. By full Paycheck I mean they didn’t give me my housing allowance or cost of living allowance (seeing as to how I was stationed in Alaska) and I was given a fraction of my base salary. There was no military housing available and my family can’t eat at the chow hall without paying. But I am glad that I abandoned my family to defend my fucking country knowing full well I wasn’t getting my next paycheck and didn’t know when I would receive another one, so that I could comeback to a country where people still question my integrity. Especially when I call both sides of our nation’s leadership out on using people’s livelihood as bargaining chips. I love my country and have given up more than most people will ever know for it. If you question the facts check them out for yourself. If the extension was approved on the 12th and there are millions of federal employees do you think it got fixed by the 15th??? DFAS is not capable of fixing that for everyone in the army by the 15th. That is a major problem and no one cares that it can happen again, in fact they feel it will be a good bargaining chip in the future. They did however approved some legislation so it wouldn’t happen to Soldiers that were currently deployed hastily when they realized the severity of the situation. But the rest of the Military experienced some hiccups. The idea of U.S. Soldiers deployed and at home alike not being able to support their families because of bureaucracy is sickening. America is better that… and if you don’t agree with me that’s fine I’ll see you in hell and we can settle there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-military-not-get-paid-at-any-time-during-obamas-administration/637963.md?page=3)