Would you self-diagnose your own medical problem? Sometimes as a self-help form of estate planning, family members will deed their property to their family, sometimes as a right of survivorship deed, an enhanced life estate deed (a ladybird deed), or an outright transfer. The form of a deed is fairly standard in Texas, so do […]
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Have you ever considered what would happen to you and your Child if your ex-spouse or Co-parent passed away and you no longer receive child support payments? These are real-life considerations that would impact your household budget in the bottom line for the financial state of your family in a brutal way. However, with all of the other aspects of our lives that are ongoing, we may not be able to stop and think seriously about this subject. However, I believe that is a mistake. Understanding what would happen with your family after the death of a Co-parent or ex-spouse is a significant consideration that you need to account for.
The duty to pay child support stems from the general concept in Texas that every parent must support their Child. This duty still applies before you become involved in a family law case. When a child is living in your household or even outside your home, you must perform certain functions for the Child, such as primary education, food, clothing, and shelter. Medical care and medical insurance become part of that equation once you become involved in the family law system. If you cannot provide health insurance or coverage to your Child, the state of Texas will do so, but you must reimburse the state for those expenditures.
Child support extends this general premise under which Texans operate in a family law setting. Typically, in a joint managing conservatorship, one parent is named the parent who has the sole right to determine the Child’s primary residence. This means that one parent chooses where the Child lives full-time, and the other parent has visitation rights. Along with those visitation rights is a duty to pay child support. Child support is born from the non-primary parent to the primary parent because another child spends with both parents. While the non-primary parent typically has a fair amount of time with the child during the year, there is a difference. That difference is not only because one parent spends more time with the other children, but that parent also spends more money on them on average.
Child support will begin to make this a more equitable circumstance, allowing for the non-primary parent to start to even up those costs by paying support monthly. Alright, as a part of your divorce or child custody case, you would have likely gone over the circumstances of child support with your attorney. However, to make sure that you understand the implications of child support, I would like to go through this topic with you and discuss what it means from the standpoint of protecting yourself your Child and ensuring that there are no ongoing disputes with your Co-parent over a subject where it is easy to find yourself in disagreement with them.
The concept of child support is not a complicated one. Your Co-parent pays money to you each month to help pay the costs associated with raising the Child. Child support is calculated based on the guidelines outlined in the Texas family code. Your Co parent’s net monthly income will be calculated, and then a percentage will be applied against the set net monthly payment based on how many children you have before the court. Somewhere between 20 and 50% of your Co parent’s net monthly income will pay child support each month.
That child support is typically not paid directly to you by them. Instead, a wage withholding order would have been set up. Your employer automatically deducts a certain amount of money from your co-parent’s paycheck to pay child support at the beginning of the month. Those child support payments would flow to the office of the attorney general child support division. From there, the attorney general’s office would act as a clearinghouse for the child support payments. The payments would then go to your bank account or a debit card of yours.
You had an arrangement where child support payments go through the state of Texas rather than directly to you serves a couple of good reasons. The first is that there is a record for everyone to keep track of the payments of child support made previously. There will not be a situation where one or both of you have questions about who has paid what and what your Co-parent owes, if anything. Instead, you can refer to the Ledger offered by the state of Texas. Based on this, there will be no question about what is owed in what has been paid. This keeps the both of you from keeping track of your own of these important figures.
Next, by having the payments flow through the attorney general’s office, you know that your prices will be handled correctly. The alternative would be to receive direct payments from your Co-parent for these child support amounts. Unless you want to trust your Co-parent always to have the correct amount of money, I’m ready to go; then I would probably prefer that the state handle it if I was in your shoes. Additionally, it frequently ends up being where your Child must play middleman and deliver the Child Support payment to your co-parent. This can be an awkward position for your child to be in, and as a result and it’s preferable for them not to have to get involved.
Child support can be modified if the need to do so arises. This is done through a formal child support modification case. To alter the Child, support the circumstances of you, your child, or your Co-parent would have needed to have changed somehow. In your case, let’s walk through some common scenarios that may justify a child support modification.
As I’m sure you could imagine, the state of Texas is not precisely want to encourage parents to constantly try and change the amount of child support that they are receiving or paying. It’s not that there aren’t circumstances where doing so makes sense. However, to be in a position where the court constantly has to update child support on an ongoing basis will be difficult for the court to do and even more difficult for you and your Co-parent to keep track of. We have already talked about how wage withholding orders and other specifics would need to change over time in this type of scenario.
As a result, a specific legal standard must be met to modify child support. As with any modification case in Texas, the bar is a material and substantial change in circumstances. That material and significant change must have been seen by you, your Co-parent, or your Child. The most common reason families modify child support is due to a change in income. Typically, this involves your Co parents’ income either increasing or decreasing.
For instance, if your Co-parent were to get a new job where they are paid more money, then a calculation would need to be done to determine if child support would change by greater than 20%. If that is true, a judge will modify child support to reflect this increased income in most cases. Otherwise, once a modification case is filed, you and your Co-parent would have to negotiate this specific modification based on the circumstances involved.
On the other hand, your child may have seen their circumstances change due to a physical or mental impairment that is suddenly relevant in their lives. Suppose your child has an impairment or disability that has developed since the last time you were in court to determine child support. In that case, you may be justified and ask for increased child support or at least medical permission to account for this newly developed condition. Were you to try to pursue an increase in child support based on a circumstance like this, you would be well served to provide documentation showing medical proof of a need as well as more specific information about the actual impairment or disability that your child is suffering; with? Confirmation of regular doctor visits, rehabilitation, behavioral health appointments, or things of this nature is what is sister court in deciding about the need for an increase in child support.
Ultimately modification cases are like divorce and child custody cases. They frequently come down to negotiation between you and your spouse on what is acceptable in terms of a given modification. Even if your change does not necessarily stand an excellent chance to be approved by a family court judge, you can continuously pursue the transformation through negotiation with your Co-parent. Your Co-parent could meet you in the middle where a family court judge likely would not be able to do so.
When it comes to the issue of child support, and specifically with modifications, it is essential to note that having an experienced hand to assist you is extremely important. The experienced attorneys with the law office of Brian Fagan stand ready to help you and your family in your child support needs, whatever they may be. We offer free of charge consultation six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video, where we can answer questions and talk to you about your circumstances. From there, you can decide whether or not you want to pursue a modification.
A parent’s child support obligation ended for many years when they passed away. This was true even if the child in question was a minor. However, the legislature changed the Texas family code about 15 years ago to state that the court-ordered child support obligations survive the owing parents’ death. In your circumstances, this means that your Co-parent would still owe child support even after they passed away. This may come as a shock to some people, but this is the case in Texas.
If your Co-parent were ordered to pay child support and then passed away before your child reaches the age of 18 or graduates from high school, then the amount that would have been done over many years would Become owed immediately after the death of your Co-parent. Your Co parent’s estate would need to pay an amount based on the amount of child support owed. You can think of this as a debt that the estate must pay before distributing any property to persons named in their will or to heirs.
The parent’s estate, their representative, and your attorney would likely need to agree on how to structure these payments of child support. This could become especially tricky if it becomes apparent through the probate process that your Co-parent lacks the resources in terms of assets to pay you this child support. In this case, a probate and family court would need the work together to determine The Child Support That would need to be paid in light of the lack of resources on the part of their state.
Determining how much child support is owed after the death of your Co-parent is the job of a family court. Future child support obligations can be discounted for present payment and can be offset by other benefits paid to your child upon the death of your Co-parent. In most cases, this means that if a life insurance policy is taken out before the passing of your Co-parent and your children are named as the beneficiaries. Any payout from that life insurance policy can offset The Child Support that is owed. This life insurance policy could help protect your Child’s financial future if your Co-parent were to pass away. In many cases in life insurance policy whose face value is larger than the amount of child support owed would completely do away with the obligation to pay support in the future.
This is an exciting area of the law because it has family law elements and estate planning elements. Many people assume that matters related to child support are only relevant until your children reach the age of 18. This will be true. However, if you also planned not to do anything about planning for your end-of-life circumstances until you are much older, that would be a mistake. From the events we have been discussing today, we can already see that the end of life for some of us will not be when we are old and Gray. Instead, our end-of-life circumstances may be sooner than we think. While this may be unpleasant to think about, it is the reality that stares all of us in the face each day.
You need to consider the size of your estate, the assets that you own, other debts that need to be paid, and your life insurance policies when it comes to end of life and estate planning. Your health and the health of your children are also important factors. You can begin to minimize the risk of potential harm to your children by taking out a simple term life insurance policy where they are named as the beneficiaries or at least the secondary beneficiaries. Your Co-parent would be able to handle those benefits for your children, and you could set up a trust on their behalf if that were not to your liking.
On the other hand, if you are the parent receiving child support, you should begin to think about how you would pursue a claim on behalf of your children if your Co-parent passed away. Life insurance policies where you or your children are named beneficiaries do not have to go through probate. This means the money will be potentially able to go directly to you soon after your loved one passes away. However, it is wise to have a plan in place for these circumstances for you and your children.
If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are an excellent way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law and how your family circumstances may be impacted by the filing of a divorce or child custody case.
One of the aspects of a divorce that many people do not consider before filing is the financial impact on your life associated with paying for court costs and fees. True, these costs frequently pale in comparison to additional considerations like child support, spousal maintenance, and even attorney’s fees. However, when you are on a budget like we all are, it is essential to be aware of all financial components to a case that can impact your bottom line. This is especially true during a time when your budget may be stretched thinner than usual, and you may be trying to operate under one income when you are used to doing so with two.
The first step you need to take to have a judge consider whether to waive any filing fees associated with your case is to complete a Texas fee waiver form. As a rule, it would make the most sense to complete this form if an attorney does not represent you. The simple fact that you are paying for an attorney to represent you is Filing a divorce case. That’s not to say that filing for divorce is cheap or inexpensive. However, the costs of filing the divorce are relatively small compared to the other expenses of a divorce that we have already discussed.
Looking at any legal form can be complicated if this is not something you are accustomed to regularly doing. There is something about these forms that can be confusing at times. Period, as a result, I wanted to provide you with some basic information about the conditions to understand whether it is even worth your time to consider filling one out. You must be able to not your cause number so that the court clerk can identify you and your case. Understand that the courts are bustling. From my experience, the folks that work at the courthouse are diligent people, but everyone has their limits. You should do your best to make their job easier. This starts with knowing your cause number so that the clerk can readily identify you requesting their fee waived.
Next, you would complete your full legal name and date of birth. Your address, phone number, and email need to be included in the court to follow up with you or ask for additional information. Most importantly, you will be asked to confirm your dependence. Dependents are any persons that you are legally in financially obligated to. A mistake that you should avoid making in this regard is to assume that the state of Texas only wants to know about minor children that are before the court in a divorce or child custody case. Instead, it would help list all your minor children and any adults, such as aging parents, but you are also financially responsible for them. This will give the court a much better idea of your accurate responsibility levels when caring for other people.
You will also be asked about any representation that you are receiving through a group called legal aid. Legal aid is a general classification provided to attorneys who work for various nonprofit organizations and governmental entities around the state of Texas. Typically, legal aid attorneys do not charge for their services and will represent you just as any attorney would. You will need to disclose whether legal aid represents you in your area or if legal aid declined to represent you.
Before you can apply for the court to waive your legal fees associated with filing your divorce, you would need to disclose to them whether you are on public benefits. Some of the types of public benefits asked about are Medicaid, chip, Supplemental Security Income, public housing, low-income energy assistance, and other types of county assistance such as health insurance through Harris County. Being able to show that you are eligible for and are receiving these benefits indicates a proven financial need that the court will consider when determining whether you should have your court costs exempted.
This form is not one that you should consider completing in a hurry. While some of the information can be recited from memory, like your children’s names and birth dates, other data will require some degree of research and preparation. Your wages in your monthly benefits that you receive from various sources must also be cited. The value of your bank accounts, vehicles, are their property, and things of this nature must be specified as well. It is no problem to begin collecting this information, given that you will need to disclose it eventually to your divorce court judge anyways. Therefore, why not take the time to prepare this information ready now, so you will have it prepared for your divorce.
Finally, you will need to list out your debts; just like we saw with property, your debts will also need to be disclosed to a divorce court judge once your divorce is filed. If your debts play a significant role in determining why you need to have your court costs or fees waived, you should disclose that in this application. You may have a substantial income, and if you also have incredibly high debt payments of some sort, this could explain the need to have your court cost waived.
When you have completed all eight sections of the form, you must declare under oath that you cannot afford to pay court costs by signing your name, dating the state, and filing it with the correct court. From there, the district or county clerk’s office will review the form and submit it to the judge’s report for their review as well. If your request is granted, then you will not have to pay court costs or the fees associated with filing a divorce in your county.
If your request to have court costs waived in your case, then you may be curious to find out how much it costs to file for divorce in Texas. The answer to that question is that it depends upon the county that you are in. The filing fees associated with your divorce case may need to be added onto the copies that need to be made as far as serving a citation or hiring a process server to notify your spouse that you have filed for divorce. You should contact the district clerk’s office in the county where you plan to file your divorce to learn about the fees associated with the case. Usually, these fees can be obtained by a fee schedule posted on the district clerks’ website.
If your court costs are waived, this would include filing fees, fees for issuance and service of process, fees for copies, prices for a court-appointed attorney, and fees charged by the clerk or court reporter for preparation of the appellate record. These are just a handful of the pieces of information achieving to know before filing a divorce. If you are on a budget and cannot afford to proceed with the divorce where you are paying attorney’s fees and court costs, you need to seriously consider how to limit those costs and how they may impact your divorce case. While you may not always completely control the costs of your case, there are specific ways to position yourself for a relatively inexpensive divorce.
This may seem like a relatively straightforward piece of advice, but I can assure you that it is not. For many of you reading this blog post, you will have been contemplating divorce for some time and are only now getting to the point where you can feel comfortable moving forward with the case. Others are just at the beginning stages of your divorce and are learning what it takes to get the process started. No matter where you are in the divorce process, you can rest assured that one of the most complex parts of a case is the need to communicate with your spouse effectively.
I have found that the most common reason people get divorced is their inability to communicate with their spouses. Whether that inability stems from a lack of communication skills or an unwillingness to use the communication skills that you do have, if you are struggling with deciding whether or not a divorce should be in your future, it is likely due to some problems with communication. Difficulties with communication can lead to financial difficulties, infidelity, and distrust when parenting your children through difficult circumstances. For many of you reading this blog post, the issues you discover when it comes to your marriage may have been festering for some time, but you are only now putting yourself in a position to deal with those problems.
The best time to work through the issues in your marriage Was yesterday. The next best time to work through the problems in your marriage is today. Do not underestimate the impact that simple conversation can have. If you and your spouse are on speaking terms, you can accomplish so much by directly communicating with them, period at the very least; you can minimize the outstanding issues in your case and therefore decrease the amount of time that must be spent During the actual divorce itself. This will save you time and money.
Additionally, if you take the time to talk to your spouse about the issues in your case before your divorce, you may even be able to avoid getting a divorce in the first place. I’m not saying that if you talk with your spouse, you can avoid getting a divorce. However, you may be surprised to find out that I have been involved in many situations with clients where simply by being willing to open the lines of communication that alone has propelled people into being able to save their marriages.: the cheapest way to get through a divorce is never to have to go through one in the first place if I told you that by simply admitting some faults of your own and agreeing to work on specific issues with your spouse, you might be able to avoid divorce altogether.
To sum it all up: communication with your spouse before your divorce case begins can reduce the number of issues that need to be debated throughout the case. This leads to a less hostile divorce that is shorter and less expensive. If you are operating under a tight budget for your divorce case, to begin with, then this should be the major takeaway from this point. Next, you may also be able to avoid the divorce altogether by speaking with your spouse about significant issues in your marriage period; if it has been some time since the two of you have talked about topics in your marriage, then this may be enough to open the lines of communication and avoid getting the divorce altogether. There is no better way to save money on divorce than not to have to get divorced in the first place.
I have a theory that you can wander into a divorce, but you cannot walk out of one. It is straightforward 2 take the issues in your marriage for granted and sit idly by as they fester and get worse. The next thing you know, you have significant problems in your marriage that are unresolvable except through a divorce. Since nobody likes to sit down and deal with these topics, they get even worse, and then divorce becomes your only option. Divorces cost money, and you wind up having to spend a lot of money on a process that harms your family and may have been avoidable in other circumstances.
Once you find yourself in this position, it is best to think critically about the divorce and how you want to proceed. Many people go into divorce thinking that their attorney will do all the work and that they must show up to sign some paperwork here and there. This is not how divorces work period instead;, your attorney will be there to help guide you throughout the process but is not in charge of decision making. You are the final determine are of the proper orders in your case. That is until you get inside a courtroom and the judge takes on that role.
Otherwise, you will have the ability to spend your divorce case focusing on the critical issues in your life and regarding your children. My advice is to take this responsibility seriously and become engaged in focusing on the essential points of your divorce; for some of you, that will be your finances. Those of you who are parents will likely want to focus most intently on your children. Whatever your circumstances are, I would recommend going into your divorce with a mindset focused on those issues that can be negotiated through and those issues where you are dead set on a specific outcome. Determining what issues you can’t budget from if any, and those issues where you can resolve the conflict through negotiation is critical and can cut down on negotiating time.
Next, I would work diligently through your divorce and do not take any opportunity for granted when it comes to talking to your spouse about the critical issues of your case. Many people we’ll sit idly by until temporary orders mediation and then again sit idly by until final orders mediation. Meanwhile, you would have lost so much time that you could have spent negotiating through the issues of your case.
Do not allow weeks or months to proceed without talking to your attorney about what is ongoing in your case and what you see as being critical issues, especially for final orders mediation. If you know that you have to settle on what to do with your family home, you should be talking with your attorney and spouse throughout the process. A lot of these issues cannot be solved in one day. It is a huge mistake to avoid a challenging discussion for months during your divorce, assuming that you can settle them in mediation. Instead, I would recommend working with your attorney and spouse throughout the process to see what can be solved through negotiation informally in what will need to wait until mediation offers you a more firm deadline on essential topics related to your divorce. Your ability to negotiate costs you nothing and can end up saving you a lot of money down the line in your case.
if you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post. Please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultation six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are an excellent way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law and how your family circumstances may be impacted by the filing of a divorce or child custody case.
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has filed a complaint against Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments (PKS Investments), accusing the broker-dealer of failing to supervise its financial advisors. These advisors who were dually registered through another financial firm allegedly sold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that were unsuitable for customers.
This other firm was Waltham-based investment advisor Harvest Group Wealth Management. As a result, the state securities regulator contends that investors suffered $2.3M in losses.
The post Massachusetts Charges Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments Over Investors’ $2.3M in ETF Losses appeared first on Investor Lawyers Blog.
Three former employees of the Lion & Rose restaurant sued their employer for violating the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act of 2020. The lawsuit came known as Summers v. Olde England’s Lion & Rose Rim, No. 20-CV-00929 (W.D.Tex.). The EPSLA ended in December, 2020. It provided for paid sick leave for persons who contracted the coronavirus. The three employees, manager Gary Bruce, and bartenders Spencer Cox and Michael Summers, claimed they were fired for taking time off from work to quarantine in 2020. The Lion & Rose, as employers always do, claimed they were fired due to poor work performance.
Retaliation
Mr. Bruce came down ill and took the coronavirus test. He then quarantined for tend ays, as he was required to do. Bruce complained to the owner, Allen Tharp, that he was not paid his sick leave, as required under the EPSLA. Mr. Bruce says Mr. Allen then said he would pay him when he works.
Regarding Mr. Summers, the plaintiff entered into evidence an email from Mr. Tharp saying Summers’ absence had cost him thousands of dollars in sales.
Jury Verdict
The matter was tried to a jury in February, 2022. Mr. Bruce sought $8,333, Mr. Cox requested $58,300 and Mr. Summer sought $68,400, all in lost wages and benefits. The first question the jury had to answer was whether the Lion & Rose was an integrated enterprise. The Lion & Rose had 40 employees at the restaurant. But, it had some 600 employees at Lackland AFB and Camp Bullis dining facilities. If the employer has 500 or more employees, then the EPSLA would not apply. So, to the first question, the jury answered no, the restaurant was not integrated wit the two military dining facilities.
Regarding liability, the jury found Bruce and Summers were not fired due to taking emergency sick leave. The jury found in favor of Mr. Cox, but only awarded $2,500. See San Antonio Express News report here.
Juries can be hard to explain. Why would a jury find in favor of Plaintiff Cox, but only award some 5% of his lost wages. We do not know, but perhaps Cox had some interim earnings that the jury took into account. The jury only deliberated about 90 minutes. There was certainly sufficient evidence on which the jury could have found reprisal.
See the Department of Labor website for more information about the EPSLA and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act here.
I looked over my January bank statement for my business account a few weeks ago and noticed something unusual. I use my business account exclusively for business, so charges from Google Play stood out. Four unauthorized charges, each for $399.99, occurred between January 24 and January. 31. I also found charges of 99 cents before that, apparently testing the account.
I immediately contacted my bank to report the unauthorized charges on my debit card. The scammer had set up a subscription, which means that about $800 would have been deducted from my account weekly had I not checked my statement and noticed the fraudulent activity. The bank canceled the subscription, froze my card, and issued a new one. Thankfully, I have not detected any unauthorized charges on my account this month.
I am not alone. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are victimized by credit card fraud annually. In fact, Americans collectively lost over $250 million dollars in fraudulent credit card transactions. Many unauthorized charges are the result of fraudulent subscription charges of under $5, which go largely unnoticed by cardholders.
Be vigilant! It goes without saying that you should check your bank and credit card statements at least monthly for transactions you do not recognize. If you find suspicious activity, report the unauthorized charges immediately. This will increase the likelihood that the financial institution will credit charges back to your account.
It is also possible to set up alerts of transactions on your accounts, which I have now done. My bank will now alert me to all transactions over a specified dollar amount.
In addition to carefully reviewing your bank and credit card statements for unauthorized charges, the FBI recommends that you take the following step to avoid Credit Card Fraud:
I’m not sure how the scammer got my card number, but I suspect that it may have occurred because I had my credit card number saved on a retailer’s website. Even though the vendors I use are reputable and promise to store credit card information securely, the information can be vulnerable to a data breach.
So I’ve deleted all my saved cards. Even though it’s less convenient to input my card number every time I make an online purchase, I’ve decided that keeping my accounts safe is worth the hassle.
The post Protecting Yourself from Credit Card Fraud appeared first on Rania Combs Law, PLLC.
Among the many odd things about Operation Lone Star is the absence of a Sergeant Major who actually visits the troops. I previously wrote about Operation Lone Star here and here. Jim Betts, a retired E-9 in the Navy, knows something about what E-9’s do. In the US Army, the E-9 is the Sergeant Major. There is a SGM at command level from Battalion up through Army level in Washington, D.C. There is a top SGM in the Texas Guard assigned to Camp Mabry. SGM’s perform one critical function: ensuring the welfare and discipline of the individual soldier.
During my time in Iraq, I observed first-hand what happens when an army does not have a tradition of strong NCO’s. The Iraqi army had no tradition of strong, capable NCO’s.
And, at the top of the NCO food chain is the SGM. A SGM will generally visit every soldier and observe first-hand his/her discipline and equipment. If there are problems, a SGM will fuss at the NCO responsible. And, the SGM will report that deficiency to the Commander. The SGM is the Commander’s eyes and ears.
Master CPO Betts (Ret) is the father of one of the Texas Guardsmen deployed to the border. MCPO Betts says the SGM’s in the Texas Guard are not doing their jobs. They are not visiting and checking on the soldiers. See Texas Scorecard report here. Contrast that with my experience in the Texas Guard. No matter where my Infantry unit was, the SGM always found my soldiers. I would run into the Battalion SGM in the deepest darkest corners of Ft. Hood.
MCPO Betts says the soldiers are living in miserable conditions. When they first came to these long shuttered motels, they found dead roaches, dead rats and drug paraphernalia in the rooms. The soldiers who live in the trailers from tractor trailers are squeezed into very cramped quarters. They lack cold weather gear, first aid kits, Individual Body Armor (IBA), and helmets. They are sometimes shot at by the narco terrorists across the river. This problem is similar to the problem in the Viet Nam War. In that war, field grade officers rarely visited the soldiers in the bush. Never seeing the big cheese indicates their mission is not important. The worst thing you can do with a soldier is to ask him/her to risk their health and life for a mission that does not matter.
“Aren’t Doing Jack Shit”
And many soldiers are ding exactly that: nothing. As one soldier said, he is on duty two hours a day. Then he goes back to his quarters, drinks alcohol, and then does the same thing the next day.
“I work probably two hours a day. I just go back to my room and drink. And then rinse and repeat. I’ve been doing this for four months,” one member of the Guard told TPM. “I really don’t have a problem with the mission. I think the execution was the issue, and the fact that we have way too many soldiers down at the border, and a lot of them aren’t doing jack shit.”
Guardsmen expect to make sacrifices protect their states and their country. But, to sacrifice your job, your family, your business to work two hours a day and drink is more than they can bear. Mental health issues are worsening. See Talking Point Memo here.
Radios
The other problem is equipment. Because the Guardsmen were activated not through an Army post, they have to rely on state owned property. But, the National Guard is just not set up to acquire enough equipment for 20,000 members of the Guard. The OLS soldiers even lack radios. They have to rely on cell phones – if the phone has service. There is a reason why the Army does not rely on cell phones. Service in rural areas is often non-existent. Try getting cell phone service in the middle of North Ft. Hood. Without radios, the Texas Guard is just one catastrophe away from a scandal.
No Sick Call
Remarkably, the Texas Guardsmen often do not have sick call. A long-time military tradition. Sick call is supposed to work like this: the soldier reports he has an illness. He is then sent to a clinic for a check-up. But, MCPO Betts says his son had strep throat last November. He could not go on sick call, because there was no sick call. Again, being on state orders, they have no access to U.S. military hospitals or clinics. Texas is asking the Guard to perform a mission it cannot support.
And, I have to say, as a Company Commander or Battalion Commander, there is no way I would tolerate no SGM checking on the troops. The lack of SGM visits suggest they did not activate enough SGM’s to get to everyone. It is time for some officers to start transferring to the IRR and protest this complete lack of command support. There is no reason for the absence of a SGM.
The problem for most of us is that when the Guardsmen start leaving the Guard, we will not have them the next time we see a Hurricane Harvey.
