Caring for Those Left Behind: Soldiers’ survivors need real benefits more than yellow ribbons.
Historically, this country has always expected the most out of it’s soldiers while compensating them at almost starvation rates. It’s a good thing that those who defend our freedoms do so largely out of conviction, because no one with half a brain would make this career choice for the money.
This is especially true when you consider the following numbers. It’s a comparison of the average compensation paid to the families of those who lost their lives on 9.11.01 and to the families of those soldiers who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, defending those freedoms our government claims is at risk:
Average compensation paid to families of civilians killed on 9.11.01:
$3,100,000
Average compensation paid to families of firefighters killed on 9.11.01:
$4,200,000
One-time benefit paid to the family of a fallen American soldier:
$12,000
Of course, there are other sources of funds that may be available to the families of fallen soldiers, but none of them will begin to approach the sums paid to the families of civilians and firefighters. To call this an inequity would not begin to do justice to the families of these soldiers kill in the line of duty.
The surviving family may also qualify for the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), which is paid up to age 62 or until the spouse remarries. The SBP benefit amounts to 55 percent of the soldier’s retirement pay, pay that is already so low it qualifies many military families for food stamps.
These “benefits” are contingent on fulfilling many petty regulations…. Several further benefits, such as the income-based Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), may pay out about $800 per month and $200 per child, depending on the case.
The clear message sent by this system is that the life of a stockbroker or a firefighter is worth significantly more than that of a soldier, a sailor, a Marine, or an airman- regardless of gender. This is not to say that the families of those civilians, police, and fire personnel killed on 9.11 should not be compensated. Nonetheless, are we really so insensitive that we are blind to the inequity inherent in how we treat our servicemen and women vis-a-vis those who died on 9.11?
Yes, our service personnel are clearly cognizant of the risks they face in the service of their country, but does that make their families less deserving of compensation? The 9.11 families have received an astonishing (albeit unwanted) windfall, and most of them, with some solid financial planning, should be set for life. Are our men and women in uniform somehow less deserving of that sort of commitment?
Our soldiers are being killed on a daily basis, but most of us seem to feel little personal connection with them. If we did, their widows and families would be better compensated. Our idea of “supporting the troops” is to stick magnetic yellow ribbons on our cars. Those Americans who do not serve or do not have family serving are disconnected from our all-volunteer forces and their families….
Let’s strip away our yellow-ribbon sentimentality for a moment and admit the truth: We treat our military like second-class citizens. I’m glad the Sept. 11 families were generously compensated, but it’s time to ask why the family of someone who has done no more for his country than show up at a stock trading office on the wrong day should receive hundreds of times as much compensation as the family of a soldier who volunteered to leave his wife and child to defend the rest of us.
Most of the dead from our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are being buried in small towns and in the blue-collar or middle- and lower-middle-class sections of our cities. Our politicians seem better able to identify with the needs of stock traders’ widows (not to mention the businesses and airlines that were also generously compensated) than with the needs of the families of our soldiers. This is a scandal.
Indeed it is. Until we can stop mouthing platitudes about how we honor those who serve, we will continue to be nothing but a nation of self-absorbed hypocrites. Our men and women in uniform deserve better than empty words and magnetic yellow ribbons slapped ostentatiously on SUVs. We are more than willing to extoll the virtues of those who defend our way of life and the freedoms that we enjoy, but is it fair to expect a soldier to sacrifice his or her life for the moral equivalent of minimum wage? Is it fair to condemn the family of that serviceperson to a life of virtual poverty?
The families of those who died on 9.11 were compensated in part with the use of a formula that calculated future earning power. Why can we not do the same for the families of our men and women in uniform? It’s the least they should be able to expect from us.
