U.S. Coast Guard commandant Admiral Karl Schultz sent out a letter to his guardsmen acknowledging their first missed paycheck and letting them know that he is working with service organizations to get donations to tide them over.

“Today you will not be receiving your regularly scheduled mid-month paycheck,” Schultz wrote. “To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time in our Nation’s history that service members in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid during a lapse in government appropriations.”

He added, “It is also not lost on me that our dedicated civilians are already adjusting to a missed paycheck — we are confronting this challenge together.”

Read the letter here:

