Poverty Is Latest Battlefront for Some Military Families : Assistance: Food stamps, other federal aid programs and second jobs help some sailors at local bases supplement their low salaries.

By night, Airman James Long works in an aircraft hangar at the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station, keeping precise maintenance records of F-14 Tomcat fighter jets.

By day, the 23-year-old sailor sells computers at a local department store to supplement his $1,300 monthly Navy salary. His wife, Lauri, is busy taking care of the couple’s infant son and 4-year-old daughter. But she does what she can by clipping coupons and being a careful shopper at the base commissary.

Because of his low rank and corresponding low pay, Long’s family is qualified to collect about $80 a month in food coupons under the federal Women, Infants and Children program to ensure the good nutrition of their growing family.

“We’re budgeted down to the penny,” Lauri Long said. “We tend to eat a lot of salad, chicken and leftovers. If I had to shop at a regular supermarket and not at the commissary, we’d be in trouble.”

While better off than some, the Longs aren’t alone with their financial hardships among military families.

In Ventura County, more than $63,000 in food stamps and $32,000 in WIC coupons were redeemed by local Navy families last year--the lion’s share at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme.

Throughout the armed services, more than $27 million in food stamps passed through military commissaries last year. The federal WIC program gave out about $15 million in coupons to military families in 1993, a $2.5-million increase from the year before.

Although Navy officials at Port Hueneme or Point Mugu will not say exactly how many sailors were on food stamps, citing confidentiality laws, they estimated that as many as 15 families on the bases depend on food stamps to get by.

The low pay rates of enlisted personnel are beginning to draw the attention of top commanders who are concerned that money problems may distract soldiers or sailors from focusing completely on their jobs, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Doug Hart.

“It’s very much a concern,” Hart said. “You can’t expect people to perform their jobs well if they’re worried about what’s going on at home. Some of the jobs we do can get you hurt real fast if you’re not concentrating.”

The issue has also caught the attention of Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who last month introduced a bill that proposes a 16-member federal commission to study military pay rates.

“More and more, the men and women who have agreed to potentially lay down their lives for their country are finding that along with the uniform may come a losing battle with poverty,” Gallegly said.

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Navy families in Ventura County also seek financial aid from a Navy relief organization which provides free food, small loans and cash donations.

Dianne Kerekffy, executive director of the Navy/Marine Corps Relief Society that serves both Point Mugu and Port Hueneme, said local Navy families received more than $129,000 in short-term loans in 1993. An additional $23,400 in grants was handed out to needy sailors at both bases.

“We don’t want them to become dependent on us to get by month to month,” Kerekffy said. “But, at the same time, we’re here for them as a resource.”

Each month, truckloads of food are distributed through the society’s food locker at Port Hueneme--a service available to any service member in the county. Likewise, sailors are referred to community-based food pantries for help during tight times.

Gallegly said he thinks it is unfair to pay some military personnel so poorly that they have to worry about feeding their families.

“This is an issue of equity,” Gallegly said. “These people shouldn’t have to be on welfare. I’m not saying they all should be driving Corvettes, but they shouldn’t have to worry about feeding their families either.”

Gallegly’s bill, if enacted, would give the commission $750,000 and six months time to prepare a report on the issue. That report could then be used by Congress and the President as a blueprint for military pay reform, he said. The legislation is awaiting a hearing date before the House Armed Services Committee.

Meanwhile, the issue of low pay is gaining momentum within the Department of Defense as military leaders become focused on improving the quality of life for enlisted personnel.

“The message is that money is tight and we are choosing people over systems,” Deputy Defense Secretary John M. Deutch said during a press briefing late last month. “For example, if we must delay chemical lasers in space in favor of housing for our enlisted people, then (Secretary of Defense William) Perry and I will do so.”

Although Congress earlier this year approved a 2.2% pay hike for the military and may approve a larger increase next year, the gap between military and civilian pay for comparable jobs is ever widening. Even with the congressionally sponsored pay increase, military salaries are not keeping pace with inflation, officials said.

Living on base at Point Mugu, Airman Long and his wife, Lauri, said they would gladly accept food stamps if they could get them. But like so many others stationed at Port Hueneme or Point Mugu, they make too much money or have too many assets to qualify.

In many cases, local Navy financial counselors say, simply owning a car, receiving an off-base housing allowance or having a part-time civilian job can push Navy personnel into a higher-income category that prevents them from collecting food stamps.

Kenlyn Christenot, a financial educator and counselor at Point Mugu, said that perhaps as many as two to three times the number of Navy families that receive assistance could actually use food stamps if they qualified.

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Christenot said that to qualify for the federal food stamp program, families can have no more than $2,000 in personal assets. Owning vehicles worth more than $4,500 also disqualifies families from receiving aid. Likewise, if they live off base, their Navy housing allowance is normally sufficient to block them from receiving help.

“There’s no way we would qualify,” Long said. “Yet if we didn’t have a car and I didn’t work part time, we would be worse off than we are now. The food stamp qualifications don’t make a lot sense in my opinion.”

The federal WIC program, which is initiated by a doctor’s referral and which is generally easier to qualify for, pays out less per family. The WIC program is oriented toward helping younger, poorer families supplement their children’s nutritional needs.

LeOra Stevenson, the Navy’s family services director at the Port Hueneme Seabee base, said that younger Navy families stationed in this area have a tough time making their limited salaries stretch to accommodate the region’s high cost of living.

“Compared to some of the places these people have been, Southern California is a very high-cost area,” Stevenson said. “We try to teach them that they have to very, very carefully manage their money here.”

Aside from the two family service centers at the bases, the Navy also offers financial counseling--a program that Navy officials says is helping more sailors manage their money better.

Navy officials said most needy families depend on the incomes of a sailor ranked as a petty officer or lower. Very few officers need help, they said.

But for the Longs, the stress of worrying about money exacts a high toll in stress.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and I love serving my country,” Long said. “But it’s tough to make ends meet with a newborn. Lauri and I have found money to be a big source of our arguments, (but) I think we’re going to make it though.”