Posted on 07/05/2006 1:17:37 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Your statement is meant to be funny but it was true in the early stages of the war.
The military has a method to take care of soldiers if they are involved in an accident or are about to die. They will medically retire you. We had a soldier with cancer who was six months to live and he was medically retired. There are more benefits for your family if you are medically retired. They will continue to receive your pay as a retirement payment and other associated benefits. If I die in a car wreck today, my wife only gets the SGLI, if I am in a car wreck and stay alive for about 24 hours, I can be medically retired. My wife gets the SGLI and also gets my retirement pay. Thats a lot of money.
With the serious injuries that soldiers have received, some have been medically retired since it was believed they were going to die. This was done to ensure the family received more benefits than SGLI. A soldier was in a Germany hospital and expected to die so she was medically retired. Problem, she lived and now was stuck in Germany with no way the military could help her. She was no longer active but reitired which put her in an category where the active military could not help her or even pay for plane ticket home or for her family to come to Germany to get her. The chaplin of the hospital had to get donations to help the soldier give her clothes.
I don't if they have fixed this problem but I felt bad for the soldier.
(Why do I always get the trouble makers?)
You have 19 years active duty. What is one or 11 years more? Get the retirement you are so close to. Hope you met or exceeded all your goals. You earned it.
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