NYT: Military Fails Some Widows Over Benefits

[kskiska]

As Holly Wren coped with her 6-month-old son and the sorrow of losing her husband in Iraq last November, she assumed that the military's sense of structure and order would apply in death as it had in life.

Instead she encountered numerous hurdles in trying to collect survivor benefits. She received only half the amount owed her for housing because her husband, one of the highest ranking soldiers to die in Iraq, was listed as single, childless and living in Florida — wrong on every count. Lt. Col. Thomas Wren was married, with five children, and living in Northern Virginia.

She waited months for her husband's retirement money and more than two weeks for his death benefit, meant to arrive within days. And then Mrs. Wren went to court to become her son's legal guardian because no one had told her husband that a minor cannot be a beneficiary. "You are a number, and your husband is a number" said Mrs. Wren, who ultimately asked her congressman for help. "They need to understand that we are more than that."

For military widows, many of them young, stay-at-home mothers, the shock of losing a husband is often followed by the confounding task of untangling a collection of benefits from assorted bureaucracies.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/us/27benefits.html?hp&ex=1151380800&en=0766f0db93a505bb&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[AlCzervik]

1. nice, Cut and shun, that the gop way of supporting the troops.

[MADem]

2. Jesus H. Christ. ALL of this shit should be covered in DETAIL in the

pre-deployment briefings. I can't imagine why his personnel shop screwed up so badly. There is no damn excuse.

I'll bet the damn social roster in his CO's desk has the guy's nickname, his wife's nickname, and the names of his kids precisely recorded on it. Why the fuck can't the damn important repositories of information do half as well??????

[lyonn]

3. The govt. is diligent about checking our personal records

from phones to bank accounts, and gawd knows what else, yet, they are apparently totally lacking in records of their service members giving the life and limbs.

[Sadie5]

4. Was the son the beneficiary?

Why would the husband leave his insurance to the child instead of his wife and four other kids.