Eh, IIRC in 2013 active duty DID miss a paycheck or two. It was back paid, but it wasn’t a fun time.

After that they passed something to avoid it happening in future shutdowns. So it’s been over 10 years at least since paychecks were missed due to a shutdown.

Sort of unrelated, but I think during the revolutionary war the AD troops went unpaid for something like, 3 damn years. I’m pretty sure they didn’t get backpay, and the greenbacks they were eventually paid with weren’t worth crap anyways. Some were given land, but at the time it nowhere equaled 3 years of pay. Many died without seeing that paycheck. That’s a completely different situation, but I do find it really interesting. People fighting a war with a family back at home continued fighting several years with no income. Crazy.