Posted on 10/08/2013 12:40:11 PM PDT by coder2
In what veterans call an outrageous slight after the ultimate sacrifice, the shuttered federal government is withholding a $100,000 payment normally wired to relatives of fallen soldiers — including the families of five killed in Afghanistan over the weekend.
The payment, known as the death gratuity, is typically sent to families of the fallen within three days to help them cover funeral costs or travel to meet the flag-draped coffins of their loved ones.
“It is upsetting because my husband died for his country, and now his family is left to worry,” said Ashley Peters of Springfield, Mo., whose husband, Jeremy, was a special agent assigned to the Army’s 5th Military Police Battalion and was among the five killed. “My husband always said if something happened to him we would be taken care of.”
“I’m a stay-at-home mom, which is what my husband wanted,” she said. “He wanted me to take care of our son.”
Outrage over the lapse built Tuesday in both parties in Congress, among the relatives of the fallen and among veteran advocacy groups, which characterized it as an unacceptable breach of the country’s obligation to its volunteer military and their families.
“Impacting grieving families when they are at their absolute weakest point is just disgusting,” said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the largest organization of combat veterans in the United States.
“Veterans, military personnel and now their families are not to be used as leverage in this political game of blame,” he said. He called on leaders in Congress to “put the country ahead of their politics.”
Congress passed a law last week to pay the military during the shutdown. Pentagon officials studied it to assess whether it might cover the death gratuity and determined that it was not possible, a defense official told NBC News on Tuesday.
Republican aides in Congress said that they were drafting legislation to restore the death gratuity, and that it could be put to a vote as early as Wednesday. The aides also said that they believed that last week’s law had covered the payment.
“I would say it’s wrong, and it’s going to be fixed,” said Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., whose district includes a heavy military constituency. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from the same state, said to the families: “Your government has let you down in a time of need. There’s no excuse for this.”
But for now, the $100,000 payment, meant to tide families over until military survivor benefits kick in, is being withheld for relatives of the killed over the weekend in Afghanistan, four from the Army and one from the Marines.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the shutdown, we do not have the legal authority to make death gratuity payments at this time,” said Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the Defense Department. “However, we are keeping a close eye on those survivors who have lost loved ones serving in the Department of Defense.”
A defense official added that if the department were allowed to pay the death gratuity during the shutdown, it would be paid “with great relief.”
The Marine was Lance Cpl. Jeremiah Collins Jr., 19, of Milwaukee, who the Pentagon said died Saturday while supporting combat operations in Helmand province. The Pentagon said that the death was under investigation.
Peters and three soldiers were killed Sunday by an improvised bomb in Zhari district: 1st Lt. Jennifer Moreno, 25, of San Diego; Sgt. Patrick Hawkins, 25, of Carlisle, Pa.; and Pfc. Cody Patterson, 24, of Philomath, Ore.
“If Congress were trapped in a car that sunk down in a river, I would swim to the window, and I would look them all in the eye and say, ‘Suck water,’” said Randall Patterson, the father of Private Patterson. The father used an expletive to characterize members of Congress who “are still getting paid.”
Patterson said that the military did pay for the flight he is taking Tuesday to Dover Air Force Base, Del., to retrieve his son’s body, and for his hotel once he arrives.
The mother and brother of Peters, the special agent from the 5th Military Police Battalion, said that they were too upset to talk. His step-grandfather, Peters Jerry, said that the sergeant was getting out of the military after this tour, so that he could be home more with his 20-month-old son.
“It will be devastating,” Jerry said of the delay in the death gratuity. He said that he blamed Republicans and the Tea Party.
Seventeen service members have died since the government shut down Oct. 1, a senior defense official said, including six in Afghanistan. None of the families of the 17 received the death gratuity.
It is not the only benefit that is normally paid to families of fallen soldiers and has been stopped by the shutdown.
Also suspended is a year’s worth of housing allowance, typically paid in a lump sum to the surviving spouse or dependent children of a soldier. For a sergeant in the Washington area with dependents, it amounts to more than $2,000 per month.
And survivors are not receiving a reimbursement specifically aimed at burial and related expenses. That benefit is $9,000 for burial in a private cemetery and $6,000 for burial in a national cemetery.
“We think it’s outrageous,” said Tom Berger, executive director of the Veterans Health Council at Vietnam Veterans of America, speaking specifically of the death gratuity.
“That period of time, that bereavement period right after you learn of the family member’s death, is so critical,” he said. “It can put a lot of stress on a family. That $100,000 goes a long way to taking care of that stress.”
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out that the country had never faced a war and a government shutdown at the same time. She also took note of the 12th anniversary, on Monday, of the war in Afghanistan — “a battle that barely brushes against most Americans’ lives.”
“When people realize that they can serve and fight for their country, but that their families will get an IOU until the shutdown is over, I think they're just shocked,” she wrote in a post on the military news site Defense One.
Families of the fallen often use the death gratuity to cover funeral and travel expenses, she said, because military paychecks stop immediately upon the death of a soldier, and life insurance payments can take a week or more to arrive.
“The casualties of war do not stop just because Washington does,” she wrote.
The shutdown stretched into its second week Tuesday. Republicans again insisted on a one-year delay in the federal health care law known as Obamacare in talks on how to make a deal on the budget and restore the government to full operation.
When is someone going to start impeachment proceedings.
"“It will be devastating,” Jerry said of the delay in the death gratuity. He said that he blamed Republicans and the Tea Party." And yet, NBC couldn't stop from sticking this in.
Disgusting that half of Americans were so deluded that they voted for this guy.
Which agency paid $45,000 for a mechanical bull today?
This is evil discretion by 0bama.
‘Angrier’ Mitchell? I wonder if she even realizes that the only people who will really be ticked off about this will be those inclined to conservative causes and will blame Angrier’s king first and foremost.
Eff Obama. Has someone started a replacement fund for the families of these fallen heroes? I’ll contribute and I’m sure so many other patriots would contribute that modest individual amounts would generate a huge fund to take care of these families.
Absolute disgust.
Like many of you, I’ve grown weary of hearing most of the pundits and politicians pussyfooting around this subject. With the exception of Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and a handful of others on the conservative side, none have come right out and said what every THINKING American KNOWS!
The fight over Obamacare is about stopping the unvetted, unqualified, narcissistic megalomaniacal former community organizer and tyrant in the White House from bringing about his “transformation of America”. That phrase was and is code among his dumbed down and/or uninformed supporters for creating a despotic Marxist redistributionist Utopia. That it has failed everywhere it has been attempted and left misery and death in its wake is of no concern to them. The magic Obama can make it finally work.
One element that may puzzle some of you is why more of the wealthy captains of industry and capitalists – who ostensibly have the most to lose – haven’t spoken out in opposition.
Two reasons (there may be more):
1. They believe they will be princes in the new order, their lives of wealth and ease little affected by the distress inflicted on the us down here, the mass of the great unwashed. They really should restudy the histories of those who collaborated with other tyrants who, once in firm control, dispatched those who had the resources and intellect to topple the new “king” once the inclination to do so took hold of them.
2. During the Cold War, the head of Citibank, one Walter Wriston, was asked why his New York based organization continued to provide financing to the tyrants running the Soviet Union and the slave states the USSR dominated. He replied that it made little difference to him what sort of government these nations had and his only concern was “Can they pay their bills?”
The WWII era Norwegians coined a real world name for those folks: Quisling.
Great idea --- I'll contribute too
that’s a lot of bull all right
Hannity said that a few minutes ago.
Someone should ask why we’re still in Afghanistan.
It’s all about generating the maximum amount of pain everywhere. And then they’ll come back and say: “Next time you’ll just do as we say or it will be worse... Much, much WORSE.
But at least they could afford $46,000 for a mechanical bull and $186,000 for art work.
Fixed for accuracy. Clearly NBC needs the help, as it always does.
Maybe “Jerry” should ask why there is money to fund the Obamacare website, which doesn’t work, but there is no money for this benefit?
How many of our tens of millions of parasites had any payments delayed?
“It will be devastating,” Jerry said of the delay in the death gratuity. He said that he blamed Republicans and the Tea Party.
Trust me, if they didn’t have this, NBC would have NEVER carried the story.
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