Coast Guard families left ‘angry, frustrated’
Ashley Totten’s stress level is rising.
The wife of a Coast Guard petty officer second class who will miss his first paycheck Tuesday under the partial government shutdown, she’s confronted with problems from all sides.
Her 3-month-old son, Maddox, has a heart condition, suffers from high blood pressure and could face surgery at Houston’s Medical Center in coming weeks. She’s deferred two credit card payments but hasn’t had much luck getting help from other creditors.
The Totten’s other son, Braxton, 2, was stung by fire ants a week ago. Their rescue dog, Jaxon, fell seriously ill. They’ve got food, a roof over their heads and the lights are still on, but there’s no telling how long the shutdown will last. What if the household goes without a second paycheck Feb. 1?
“I think I’m sort of in a fog,” said Totten, 31, who has appeared on national and local TV to raise awareness of the struggles Coast Guard families are facing because of the shutdown. “I truly thought there would be some Hail Mary in the end to have us paid on time.”
The shutdown affects 42,000 active-duty members of the Coast Guard, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, one of the agencies affected by the impasse over President Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to extend the border wall.
The standoff frustrates Totten, Erin Picou and Robyn Reyes. All Coast Guard wives in the Houston area, they think their husbands and others in the service, now working without pay, should be treated the same as those in the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps who also put their lives at risk every day.
The budgets of those armed services were approved last fall.
“I am angry, frustrated, anxious and concerned,” said Picou, 37 of Texas City. “We need to get Congress to pass a bill saying that the Coast Guard is in the same category as every other branch of the military. Every other branch is be-
ing paid.”
The Coast Guard declined to facilitate interviews with uniformed personnel or provide access to bases in Texas, citing the sensitive nature of the shutdown. Its stations along the Texas coast support operations ranging from marine environmental protection and port security to law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue.
Around 800,000 federal workers have missed a paycheck, among them members of Customs and Border Protection, air traffic controllers, Transportation Safety Administration screeners and FBI agents. Civilians in the FBI, Coast Guard and other agencies have been furloughed. A TSA slowdown, caused by an uptick in agents calling in sick, threatens to worsen this week.
The wives talked freely, on condition that their husbands not be identified.
Picou, a real estate agent, thinks she will be able to pay most, if not all, of the bills if everything works out. But if her husband, a 17-year veteran who has risen to chief petty officer, doesn’t get paid soon, things are going to get rough, she said.
“We’ll pay the most important things, the most important bills. I’ll keep the lights on,” said Picou. “The mortgage is the main thing.”
The mortgage payment on the home they bought six months ago is $2,400. His check was supposed to cover it.
There are no savings left. They were used for the purchase.
“It’s pretty scary. I don’t want the bank to take my new house,” Picou said.
Reyes said her power company is giving government workers affected by the furlough a 60-day grace period, but not wanting to take chances, she paid the utility bills anyway. The couple who owns their home promised to work with them on rent.
That’s a break junior enlisted Coast Guard members may not get from their landlords, Reyes and the other wives said, and if the shutdown lasts long enough, everyone will suffer in a variety of ways, from possible foreclosures and evictions to ruined credit.
“For us right now, we’re OK,” she said. “The fact of the matter is if it goes on a couple of more weeks or months, no one is going to be.”
Food is an immediate concern. The Tottens have gotten by on Christmas leftovers. Still, in a oneincome household, she carefully plans every meal.
As families try to map out how to live without an income, Coast Guard NCOs are raising money though local chapters of the Chief Petty Officers Association to feed their men at work.
The chiefs bought food last week to cook in a galley at their station on Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base. Knowing how serious things are, they’re encouraging the younger seamen to take food home.
Not every station is doing that, Totten said.
“Junior members are struggling,” she said, explaining that they lack savings.
Reyes, whose husband is a petty officer first class, didn’t worry much about the shutdown when it began. It was a typical reaction — no one thought it would have lasted this long or that, with half the month already gone and the next payday a little more than two weeks away, it would get worse.
“I can’t speak for them, but I myself think my husband has worked his ass off. He needs to get a paycheck,” Picou said. “It’s hard to focus on search and rescue if you don’t know whether your kids and family are going to have a roof over their head and food on the table.”
Totten last week went to Facebook to air her concerns after the dog began swelling badly and the dosage for Maddox’s medication was increased a second time with another drug added to get control of the fluid on his lungs.
“Do you know how much sleep a mom gets with a baby still eating on demand because his body is working so hard he’s burning through his calories faster than it should?” she wrote in a post that included a photo of her weary face. “Not much.”
Her husband will have to land a second job if things keep going the way they are. In the meantime, he works in Sabine Pass while she stays at home in League City caring for Maddox, Braxton, Jaxon and Lexie, another dog with health issues that require medication.
In her post, she asked for a prayer or two for the family.
“Not for me, I’ll handle it all but for my babies,” she wrote. “Maybe throw my husband in there too because despite maybe not getting paid next week and possibly even after that if a resolution isn’t found, he’s still going to go to work and do his job.
“Just like over 40,000 Coasties will be doing. Some will be risking their lives not even knowing if they will afford their bills the rest of the month. Say a prayer for them too,” she continued. “While you’re at it, call your representatives and demand to fund the Coast Guard because there are a lot of families that truly just don’t need this extra stress. Hot mess real life here.”