Posted on 08/10/2005 4:28:43 PM PDT by Aliska
Milan, IL-Should the biological father of a soldier killed in the line of duty receive death benefits even though he never met his daughter?
Sgt. Jessica Housby of Rock Island was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in February. The unmarried 23 year old was raised by her mother and step-father.
But the state contacted her biological father Tony Holbrook in his prison cell in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and informed him that as the biological father of Jessica, he was entitled to survivor's benefits, and is in line to receive more than 137- thousand dollars in the coming weeks.
(Excerpt) Read more at wqad.com ...
Haven't heard any local feedback yet. Will see if it comes up on talk radio tomorrow. Even the reporter seemed a little torqued by it all, but they have to try to hide their feelings.
Yep..."by-law" goes down the list of your "legal" NOK/heirs...
Only that one local media I know of so far, and I can certainly say it was sober, fair and balanced reporting. Talked to both. I don't know how they are exploiting it. It's bound to cause a stir, and they would know that, but they are reporting a very unusual (to me) and miscarriage of justice (again and to me) story.
That must be awhile back. Looked like he was out of prison by now and being interviewed outside somewhere.
Doesn't the soldier get to choose who gets the benefit if he dies?
Perhaps she hated her step-father and did it as a slap to her mother? Who knows.
However, if the daughter designated her father to get some money, the mother needs to honor it. Perhaps the daughter felt as the father did - it could change his life for the better.
There's much that wasn't said or known. I would certainly think so.
Could be and I thought about that. And contacting her bio father it sounds like she was looking for a way out of going to Iraq, and maybe he tried to help.
My better side tells me that God can bring good out of evil, so one can hope. I can't see myself voluntarily doing that to my mother who bore all the burden of raising me unless the step father was a loser.
ping for later comment
Obviously that is wrong. Working in the private sector, I choose to whom and the percentage my death benefits are given. That is a choice that always should be given. Could be this child would not want a penny to go to her dad, could be she wants half to go to him. I hope that option is given to our US forces. I would hate to think someone died defending this country and then would have had no choice to where her death benefits were given.
I hope there is more to this story than what is printed.
In the absolute truth department, I suppose that is possible. But the station headline called him a deadbeat, and they don't throw stuff like that around without sufficient reason unless to garner interest in the story.
I guess it bothers me because it kind of hits home personally in another way. This writer knows one must forgive, but it can be extremely hard to do, impossible without the grace to do so.
I've really never heard of anything quite like this. Probably welfare paid for the birth and could go after him, but I doubt they will.
No.
I know a woman whose mother ditched the man who got her pregnant and took up with a new beau (who she promptly stated got her pregnant).
Fast-forward decades and seven children - kinda hard to explain to oldest child that biological father was a deadbeat when the mother willingly took off and moved to another state. Bio dad tried to see the kid and was threatened several times.
I don't give women the benefit of the doubt because of their gender - I am one. I know better.
That's reassuring. Resentment only eats away at you.
And the media does toss things out that are false all the time.
I dunno. This sounded pretty true with the mom and bio dad on, too, unless they colluded. I'm not saying the local media couldn't have gotten some of the details wrong, happens quite often, but it will all come out in the wash. I don't believe our local media deliberately fabricates stories like this and have to check them out to some extent or they could be sued for libel & etc.
[i]Yep..."by-law" goes down the list of your "legal" NOK/heirs...[/i]
If that's what the soldier put on the form, that's the way the money will be distributed. And a dream team of OJ's lawyers will most not likely get this distribution changed.
The soldier may not have understood that "By law" meant the biological father would get some of the money...we'll never know...but the government has no business distributing the money any other way.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.