If you get handed an MRE for the day, that's what you deal with. If you miss a meal or two because things have to get done, that's what you do.
From my understanding, absolutely no logistic means absolutely no logistics. That means no MREs. Remember this is a unit without any support from the DOD: no food, no supplies, and most importantly, no DOD credit cards.
Luckily, they are in the second largest city, with more than enough restaurants. Soldiers are being told to break into small groups, use their own money to buy food at restaurants. If trump were telling the truth about LA being invaded by foreigners, or having an insurrection, this strategy would be a disaster. The small groups of soldiers eating at McDonald's would be massacred. But we are lucky here again, because trump is a liar.
The real question is what is happening to the BAS. Once these National Guard troops were federalized, they began receiving $460 a month to take care of their food needs. This money appears to be being sent to Fort Bliss in Texas. So California troops in California have the money for their food being sent to Texas... The way it is supposed to work is they are supposed to be paid directly BAS II, which would be $920 a month so they can buy their own food.
As for skipping meals, I used to know how much forces degrade every meal missed, but that was a long time ago. They will be deployed for weeks or months, so if they skipped a months worth of food, I would expect the majority of them to be dead. Given they have guns, I doubt it would ever come to that.
Having a fucked-up officer in charge
The officers on the ground are loaning the soldiers who cannot pay for their own food money, and are paying to put diesel in the trucks. Remember they have no DOD credit cards to buy fuel, which means that officers are buying the fuel with their own money. These are officers who have temporarily left good paying jobs, but still have the bills associated with their normal lives. Hopefully, they will get reimbursed sooner or later, but who really knows anymore.
It is seriously fucked up that you would attack these officers.
f I were there, I'd be spending a lot of time making sure the rank and file knew how to be the most intimidating, badassed, muthurfuckers on the planet in terms of riot control troops.
“Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics", and idiots talk about convincing soldiers to feel things. Real officers are trying to work out the logistics. This is a cluster fuck of epic proportions, and needs to be corrected.
Until then, make do with what you have.
Which is what they are doing. Sadly, the means putting a lot of debt onto their credit cards.
This is not something the military spends a lot of time preparing for.
The military spends a huge amount of time and effort on logistics. If you believe that it does not, I have to ask what color is the sky in your universe?
Do you understand that MREs do not grow by the side of the road in LA?
And no, unlike the rioters and such, the military can't procure them by looting...
It is called requisitioning. Legally speaking, soldiers can come in at gunpoint, and demand food or other materials be given to them. They will hand over signed requisition forms, that will, in theory, mean the previous owners of the materials will be paid. We are not there yet, but it is a real possibility.
The only thing that is really limited is taking houses for the troops. The Third Amendment makes that unconstitutional in times of peace. trump has claimed it is not a time of peace, but it would still be extremely legally questionable.
