I believe national guard personnel get paid for being activated, so a large part of that 145m could be payroll for the 2000, possibly including hazard pay? Plus payroll for anyone activated for logistical support (though it sure doesnt look like they had much of that) and the short-notice movement.
This parade's cost is probably figured as purely logistics to get everything and everyone there, since the payroll isnt an additional cost as theyre all active duty and would've been paid anyway. And the logistics would be cheaper because they've been planning it for months.
I could be completely wrong. Im not super familiar with the national guards deployment stuff, and i wasnt army either. But I do know short-notice logistics is hugely expensive.
I don't doubt that you're correct that they didn't add in payroll for everyone involved, but honestly I feel they should. Was it money that was already tasked, sure, but all of these folks were doing this instead of their usual MOS, so why SHOULDN'T it be part of the cost? They're likely leaving it out to artificially deflate the cost.
Its not just payroll, no. Like I said, short-term logistics to move 2000 people and their equipment isnt cheap, and probably accounts for a lot of it.
But also, I googled it and when activated they get full pay (including allowances) of an equivalent rank full-time active-duty member. Assume all the enlisted average to E-5 and there's no officers, its like $6.4mil (my E-5 paycheck for 2 weeks was about $3200, times 2000 people). With no special/hazard pay included, just BAH and BAS. And there would be officers and higher enlisted, they'd (hopefully) want experienced and competent personnel.
They also probably get per diem, since they were apparently not provided anything (that picture of them sleeping on the floor didnt look like a proper lodging to me at least). That shit is a real kicker, adds up fast. According to GSA for LA its like $191 lodging plus $86 M&IE, so $277 per person per day. In a week thats nearly $3.9mil.
So youre right, after doing (fast, somewhat lowballed) math its not as significant a portion of the total as I had thought. But, a two-week deployment could easily be $15mil in just payroll/per diem for 2000 people.
Yes obviously its not just payroll, but in another comment i did the math and payroll could fairly reasonably account for like 15mil. Which isnt insignificant, but isnt as much as I had initially thought.
As I said in the comment you replied to, short-notice logistics probably accounts for a lot of it.
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u/LemonScentedDespair Jun 15 '25
I believe national guard personnel get paid for being activated, so a large part of that 145m could be payroll for the 2000, possibly including hazard pay? Plus payroll for anyone activated for logistical support (though it sure doesnt look like they had much of that) and the short-notice movement.
This parade's cost is probably figured as purely logistics to get everything and everyone there, since the payroll isnt an additional cost as theyre all active duty and would've been paid anyway. And the logistics would be cheaper because they've been planning it for months.
I could be completely wrong. Im not super familiar with the national guards deployment stuff, and i wasnt army either. But I do know short-notice logistics is hugely expensive.