National Guard in LA left hanging with no pay and no support from locals: report
By: Tom Boggioni (Raw Story)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In the Donald Trump administration's haste to federalize California National Guard troops to hit the streets of Los Angeles to protect ICE agents grabbing immigrants, the Pentagon has dropped the ball on providing the paperwork that would get them paid and activate their benefits, according to a report.
In interviews with more than a dozen of those deployed, Military.com found frustration that the Department of Defense, under Secretary Pete Hegseth, is not upholding its obligation to provide their "formal activation orders, the critical paperwork that not only authorizes their duty status, but also unlocks pay, Tricare health benefits and eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits."
The report notes that the hasty move to send the Guard to LA, bypassing a request from Gov. Gavin Newsom, is a contributing factor to the snafu.
Add to that, the unpopularity of the militarized occupation of an American city has put off local merchants who are normally supportive of the military.
According to the report, the failure of the administration is "... indicative of a slapdash mission where the welfare of troops has not been a priority. Several service members described inadequate living conditions at staging areas such as the military facility at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where soldiers are sleeping outside on cots due to a shortage of space. Others cited intermittent issues with food and fuel supplies."
The report adds that traditionally, when the National Guard is deployed to assist in distressed communities, they are welcomed with open arms. But soldiers are getting the cold shoulder this time.
"One midlevel officer said their unit would receive 'extremely generous' help when deployed to combat wildfires, including water, sports drinks and food, which played a significant role in morale and tightened the Guard-community relationship," the report notes, before adding one officer conceded, "This is a situation [where] we're against the community."
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Insignificant to Trump, in his world he is the only one who gets paid.
Have they been there a week?
That's a good example of why the media can't be trusted. No one familiar with something as large as the Department of Defense would expect that the Guardsmen would instantly start receiving active duty pay. It takes time. This article uses this fact in order to imply that the Trump administration, which has absolutely ZERO to do with the issue, as being personally responsible for a non-existent problem.
It sounds like Hegseth failed to provide formal activation orders. I'm sure he's on it now though.
Um, right. You left out the first part of that quote.
That is, this "information" is coming from the very bottom of the entire process, not the top. There hasn't been enough time for such a charge to even be made, let alone the people on the bottom (the deployed) to even know whether those things are or aren't happening. Military personnel get paid every two weeks. How long has the Guard been activated full time? How would they even know what's what at this point? They can't, yet the article makes it seem as if this has been a problem for months or that these things happen in seconds.
Personally, I'm filing this article under "propaganda" for the time being.
Oh, and he wouldn't provide them. That would be the job of the National Guard Bureau. If the ball was dropped, which I can't see how anyone could possibly know that this early, it would be the NGB that dropped it, not Hegseth.
It's not called the All Volunteer Army for nothing you know....
This line told me all i need to know about this piece of shit partisan who isn't a reporter but a propagandist pushing an agenda and not simply reporting the facts.
Listen you stupid fucker, ICE agents are arresting illegals for breaking the law, not grabbing them, this is a simple concept that you have to be retarded to not understand.
How do you know? Just taking their word for it?
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This is entirely consistent with how the Trump organization and this administration do business.