Every day, service members of America’s military take on a dangerous job, risking and uprooting the lives they have built for themselves and moving across the country, protecting America’s citizens.

This October, America’s second longest government shutdown took place, spanning 43 days. Millions of federal workers stopped receiving paychecks, yet they were still obligated to return to work every single day. Of these millions of people were members of our military who go above and beyond each and every day for their country.

Margaret Linsalato, a local Ventura resident and military spouse, expressed her concerns about the recent shutdown. As a mother with two young children and a husband in the Navy, the family had to make some significant changes to their everyday lives to cope.

“There’s a much lower sense of defending the existence of our troops, defending the existence of our military, a lot less people sticking up for military and military families,” Linsalato said. “I just felt that nobody had our back.”

Linsalato’s family has gone through government shutdowns before, so they were more prepared this time around. For families without the experience under their belts, they weren’t so lucky.

“A lot of people are going to be hurting right now,” Linsalato said.

As the general public breathes a sigh of relief that this is over, federal workers are gearing up for Jan. 30, when the current funding bill for the military comes to an end, and the process will repeat once again.

“Every few months of threatening a shutdown does not help the American people,” Linsalato said. “It doesn’t help people who want to build a business. Military spouses can’t make plans, they can’t start businesses, if they’re having to dip into savings every few months, or having to think about dipping into savings every few months, because of the threat of a shutdown.”

When it comes to military families with young children, explaining emotionally-fraught political issues is a sensitive topic, especially when your own parents are involved. For Linsalato’s oldest, a daughter in fifth grade, she was naturally curious about how the shutdown would impact her family.

“She asked if that meant Daddy didn’t have a job anymore, and I said ‘no, he still has to go to work, they just don’t want to pay him,’” Linsalato said. 

For families who have just received a change in station, money is tight right now, and a lot of the support they usually receive is not on its way. Additionally, the Child Development Center (CDC), a daycare of sorts for military families, cut most of its hours during the shutdown, as it was not receiving funds. For families where there are two working parents, finding childcare was a problem.

“The big thing is the fact that everyone involved politically seems to love pointing fingers, and even when you talk to people in the grocery store and you strike up a conversation, everyone’s looking for someone to blame,” Linsalato said. “They’re looking to blame the other side, or blame another country, but when you’re looking for someone to blame, people are falling behind.”  

To add another layer to the complexity, President Donald Trump ordered funds that were intended specifically for research and development to go to the military. Unfortunately, since the money wasn’t congressionally approved to go towards the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), that money could be taken back at a moment’s notice.

“When that money gets yanked out of our accounts, and when we get the legitimate money put back in, we’re the ones bearing the brunt of that,” Linsalato said. “We’re the ones with bills and deadlines and due dates, so the fact that we’re the ones having to deal with that, it feels like another burden that they just expect us to put up with.”

As service members don their uniforms and head off to work every single day, the ever looming date of Jan. 30 comes closer every day. 

“The damage has already been done, and it’s going to be a long time before people feel a sense of safety,” Linsalato said.