Shutdown Impacts American Forces Network

American Forces Network viewers in Europe woke up to this message on their televisions on Saturday

Defense Department personnel and their families overseas woke up Saturday to much confusion, uncertainty and some anger about how their lives would be affected by the U.S. government shutdown, according to Stars&Stripes.

The shutdown became official at midnight Friday in Washington, D.C., after Democrats and Republicans in Congress failed to agree on a last-minute spending bill to fund government operations.

It didn’t take long for some DOD operations to grind to a halt: American Forces Network, which provides entertainment and command information to U.S. servicemembers worldwide through its television and radio services, was dark early Saturday morning in Europe.

Classical music was playing on its radio and television stations and the network posted a message online that said AFN services were not available due to the government shutdown.

The loss of AFN programming means U.S. military personnel overseas would have to find another way to watch the NFL’s NFC and AFC football championship games. The network received some angry comments on Facebook from viewers about the timing, though some of the ire was directed at members of Congress.

It wasn’t immediately known Saturday why AFN went off the air completely. In October 2013, the last time the federal government shut down, AFN maintained news and some radio services.

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What other programs or services on military bases overseas might be affected is still not clear. Most of the limited guidance that’s been put out on official social media channels indicate government organizations are still trying to sort out the way ahead.

Government civilians should report to work as scheduled on Monday, according to several Defense Department websites.

In Japan, AFN programming and social media stopped at 2 p.m. Saturday, according to a post on U.S. Naval Forces Japan’s official Facebook page.

Like in Europe, the network’s TV and radio stations played classical music. On Sunday afternoon, AFN Tokyo broadcast a radio documentary about controversies surrounding President Donald Trump’s administration.

A message posted Sunday afternoon to the official Facebook page for Camp Humphreys, South Korea, said some TV services had been restored.

“AFN TV has resumed limited service and is now broadcasting one sports channel and some news,” it said. “AFN 360 is back up on the internet. No broadcast radio is available yet, sorry.”