Former Coast Guard master chief slams administration for shutdown: 'We are so ashamed of you'

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/24/1829148/-Former-Coast-Guard-Master-chief-slams-administration-for-shutdown-We-are-so-ashamed-of-you

Former Coast Guard master chief slams administration for shutdown: 'We are so ashamed of you'
Walter Einenkel
Daily Kos Staff
Thursday January 24, 2019 · 12:18 PM EST


A former master chief petty officer of the Coast Guard and his deputy wrote a scathing rebuke of the current Trump/McConnell government shutdown, which has led government employees, such as those in the Coast Guard, to find themselves struggling to make ends meet. Steven Cantrell, who served as the 12th master chief petty officer of the Coast Guard from 2014 to 2018, and his deputy during that time, Leilani Cale-Jones, write in an opinion piece published on Military.com that they have experienced a “flurry of emotions,” from pride in the service of their fellow service men and women, to anger that these “brave men and women (and their families) should have to be subjected to such absurdity in 2019.”

The two former service members go on to talk about the selflessness the members of the Coast Guard continue to show, while “saluting smartly” and suffering the anxiety that comes with enormous uncertainty. Like other ranking officials who have come out to castigate those responsible for the government shutdown, Cantrell and Cale-Jones do not name names. But the direction of their anger is clear. Cantrell and Cale-Jones save their most withering critique of our current administration‘s handling of the government shutdown for last.



Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell should be terribly ashamed of themselves.