Fort Campbell’s Blanchfield Army Community Hospital staff continue to work without pay during the government shutdown, and some have been turned away from help. <\/p>\n
FORT CAMPBELL, KY (CLARKSVILLE NOW<\/a>) \u2013\u00a0After nearly a month and a half without a paycheck, a Blanchfield Army Community Hospital<\/a> worker desperate for help with groceries said she left a food drive on Fort Campbell<\/a> with just three bottles of water, two MREs and two cans of boiled peanuts.<\/p>\n She\u2019s one of many civilian-contracted healthcare workers for the military caught in the crosshairs of the federal government shutdown<\/a>, continuing to provide medical care to soldiers and their families without being paid. And while resources for relief have been advertised across the installation and on social media, many of these civilian workers are discovering that those resources are for active-duty families only.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now we\u2019re going into the holidays,\u201d the healthcare worker said through tears. \u201cWhat a gift for us, that this (government shutdown) may last through Thanksgiving, maybe even Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n 2 missed paychecks but continuing to provide care<\/p>\n Fort Campbell employs about 30,000 active-duty soldiers<\/a>, but often overlooked are Fort Campbell\u2019s 8,500 civilian employees, most of whom live in Clarksville, and all of whom are subject to going unpaid during the government shutdown. <\/p>\n Since BACH provides essential services, many employees are required to keep working, despite going unpaid. Four BACH workers spoke to Clarksville Now this week on the condition of anonymity. Clarksville Now will refer to them by made-up names to protect their identity: Jane, Sally, Emily and Linda.<\/p>\n Sally said the last time she was paid was at the beginning of October. \u201cAt this point, we\u2019ve missed two full paychecks, and it\u2019s definitely been difficult with myself, my husband and my child, being the main source of income for my family at this time.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving to sit down and actually calculate how long our savings is going to last us?\u201d Sally said. \u201cIt will only sustain us for so long, and just anticipating every time they (Congress) go to vote and hoping for a bill to be passed. \u2026 It definitely puts a lot of mental and emotional stress on us as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n | MORE: Food pantries strained in Clarksville as government shutdown drives surge in demand<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Praised as heroes\u2019 during COVID, forgotten now<\/p>\n Emily, a newlywed healthcare worker, said the financial impact is adding pressure to her new marriage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really affecting me mentally,\u201d Emily said. \u201cWhen you become a nurse \u2026 I think a lot of times, the public thinks that compassion and caring should be your only drive. And while that is something that does drive me, being paid drives everybody.<\/p>\n \u201cThe passion is kind of dwindling right now, and it has nothing to do with the patients,\u201d Emily said. \u201cThey have nothing to do with this. It\u2019s just my mind is focused on \u2018How am I and my husband going to navigate this as a young, newlywed couple?’\u201d<\/p>\n Emily said this isn\u2019t a reflection on BACH, but rather the government. Right now, she feels like federal employees, especially healthcare workers, are being put in the background.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of feel dismissed,\u201d Emily said. \u201cLike, they\u2019re talking about air traffic controllers. But we\u2019re taking care of people\u2019s lives right now, and it\u2019s like, we were praised as heroes when COVID came out, and now they\u2019ve forgotten all about us.\u201d<\/p>\n | NEWS TIPS: Do you have a local news tip? Email news@clarksvillenow.com<\/a> or call us at 931-648-7720.<\/p>\n Linda, who has dedicated many years of her life to the healthcare field, said she\u2019s worried about whether she will lose her house, not knowing when she\u2019ll see her next paycheck and if she needs to take on a second job.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just very disheartening right now,\u201d Linda said. \u201cEven small things like getting groceries is no longer a given. It\u2019s just the unknown of all of it and when the shutdown will be over.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal civilian families turned away at food drives<\/p>\n BACH has been sending out resources for their workers to pursue if they need assistance during the shutdown, and some resources have been advertised on social media. But pursuing these resources has left the women outraged and ashamed.<\/p>\n Linda drove to Fort Campbell on her day off to attend one of these resource fairs, only to be turned away because she\u2019s a civilian federal employee, not active-duty or a dependent of a soldier. According to a Military Times article<\/a>, the White House was able to pull together money to pay troops on Oct. 15 and Nov. 1 from excess funds at the Pentagon, but that doesn\u2019t apply to civilian employees of military installations.<\/p>\n \u201cWho goes to work for the government expecting that this is going to happen and you\u2019re not going to get paid?\u201d Jane said. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many different companies or even for utilities I\u2019ve called and they\u2019re like, \u2018Well, you do need to pay, or your insurance (car, homeowners) isn\u2019t going to last. You need to pay or we\u2019re going to disconnect.’\u201d<\/p>\n | MORE: Latest news on the government shutdown from The Associated Press<\/a><\/p>\n Jane\u2019s car was repossessed after two missed payments because of the shutdown, and she had to rely on the help of her family to get it back. Jane\u2019s own healthcare has suffered: She\u2019s had to refrain from going to the doctor to see about complications from a recent surgery because she can\u2019t afford the co-pay.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you, government, for this wonderful gift,\u201d Jane said through tears. \u201cThank you, government, for me not being able to go to my family\u2019s house because traveling two, three hours is too much gas when I need to focus on gas to get to and from work. Thank you, government, for my spouse having to have surgery, and having to borrow money just to simply pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n BACH responds, future pay still uncertain<\/p>\n Clarksville Now reached out to BACH and received the following response from Col. Jim McWherter, BACH commander:<\/p>\n \u201cOur civilian workforce is an essential part of Team BACH, and their unwavering commitment ensures that patient care remains uninterrupted. We are incredibly proud of their immense dedication and continued service to the Fort Campbell community. Regardless of circumstances, the BACH team remains steadfast in its mission: providing healthcare excellence and supporting the readiness of our warfighters, their families and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n For active-duty servicemembers, the next paychecks are supposed to be issued Nov. 15. It is uncertain if servicemembers will be paid on Nov. 15 if the shutdown hasn\u2019t ended.<\/p>\n | HOW TO CONTACT: Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee<\/a>, Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Campbell’s Blanchfield Army Community Hospital staff continue to work without pay during the government shutdown, and some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-280130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}