Lords of Death Forums Lords of Death Forums LoD General Discussion Benefits

I hope to see this go into effect.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3017644

Don't get me wrong - I feel for every family that lost a family member in war.
However..
this is getting silly. Monetary compensation for someone loosing thier life on the job? Isn't that called "life insurance"? I think giving the families that lost thier loved ones in 9/11 money was silly too. Maybe 5 - 10 grand per person would have been ok, as to cover the funeral costs and such, but 100,000 +? Not nessisary. The men and women that went to Iraq signed on the dotted line. They knew what they were doing. Does a fireman who dies in a fire get 100,000+ because he was doing his job? Not from the good old USA he doesn't.
What all that is supposed to mean is : they made the choice to sign up, they knew what the job could entail. Again, I feel bad for thier loss, but throwing money at them is crap.
-G

ppl hear you

Forget giving them that much money when they die, instead the people in the armed forces need to get paid comparable to a non-military job when they are alive.
Then they will be able to afford insurance on their own and save money for their familys.

but is it really that plausible to get life inusrance for someone in the military at this point. IE will a company even give them that chance. I know that when my dad was trying to get life insurance one company turned him down because he is a scuba diver so there is a higher risk.

Yes. In the military you are eligible for SGLI (Servicemen's Group Life Insurance), which I believe at this point is 200k. This is great, but it takes time to get it to the families. 5-10 grand isn't cutting it for all the things that come crashing down when the primary breadwinner is killed. I think somewhere between what it is now (12.5k I think) and the new propsed amount is about right. Maybe somewhere in the 25-50k range.

It was 250k for me. I believe there is an option to increase the amount after a certain number of years served.
As far as families of victims of 9/11 getting money for lost ones. This act was partially also the US Government covering their own asses because of negligence. Because of the catostrophic failure of intelligence leading up to 9/11, it could be argued that the US was legally responsible for the deaths. Part of the agreement with compensations meted out by the US was the victims' families signing a contract that stated they would not seek punitive damages in a court of law.