Lawndale Tribune
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The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale
Kiwanis Donate Buddy Bench
The Lawndale Kiwanis Club donated a Buddy Bench to Lucille J. Smith Elementary School and received a big thanks from students and staff last week. Photo: Lawndale Kiwanis.
What a Soldier’s Life Is Worth
By Rob McCarthy
The Memorial Day crowds at local cemeteries
are gone, though the flags and flowers
remain as symbols of the most solemn day of
the year for America’s families, their friends
and veterans. It’s an observance as old as the
Civil War, yet just last week another name
and family joined the nation’s ranks of Gold
Star survivors.
Only days before Memorial Day, the Army
announced the death of a Los Angeles soldier
who was on a peacekeeping mission in the
Balkans -- formerly Yugoslavia. Staff Sgt.
Conrad A. Robinson died May 24 at Camp
Bondsteel, Kosovo from a non-combat related
incident, according to the Army. The 36-yearold
was assigned to a medical brigade out
of North Carolina.
The sergeant’s death -- which the Army
says is under investigation -- raises the question
so close to Memorial Day about what
do the families of service members, like
the Robinsons, do now. The Pentagon has
a financial safety net for military families
when a soldier dies while on a mission or
suffers an injury that leads to death later. The
reality of losing a breadwinner sets in after
the military funeral and burial, especially
for the spouses and children who live on
base housing.
The immediate relatives of members of
the U.S. Armed Forces who have been killed
in combat or in support of certain military
activities are called Gold Star Families. The
term was coined during World War I when
service flags were first flown by families during
the global conflict. “The flag included a
blue star for every immediate family member
serving in the armed forces of the United
States, during any period of war or hostilities
in which the armed forces of the United
States were engaged. If that loved one died,
the blue star was replaced by a gold star,”
according to the U.S. Army’s website.
The Pentagon pays a $100,000 death
benefit to the survivors, starting with spouses
and children. Staff Sgt. Robinson leaves a
wife and two daughters, ages 5 and 10. The
one-time payment is free of federal or state
taxes. If the deceased has no wife or children,
the parents or siblings would receive
that amount.
Men and women serving in the armed forces
are covered under the death and housing
benefits if they are in training for a combat
mission or basic training after signing up for
military service with the Army, Navy, Marines,
Air Force or Coast Guard. This covers
military reserves and service personnel who
have been accepted for duty and are killed
while traveling to their assignments.
The military also pays to the spouse, child
or parent up to $400,000 from a government
life insurance policy. Every serviceman or
woman is automatically enrolled to receive
the maximum amount, though they may
decline coverage or choose a lower payout to
their survivors. Whatever the dollar amount,
it also is tax-free. And that’s not all.
The military has another insurance program
for soldiers and service personnel who die
of traumatic injury. This coverage starts at
a minimum $25,000 payout and death after
seven days of survival with one’s injuries
triggers the payout to survivors. Like other
death benefits, this one is tax-free too.
Families also are in line to receive unpaid
pay and allowances. Social Security pays a
small one-time $225 payment either to a
spouse who is caring for children or to the
children who are under 18.
Families living on base are given 12
months’ time rent-free while they grieve and
adjust to the next phase of life. For off-base
housing, a surviving spouse receives one
year’s worth of housing allowance. When
the family moves, the military handles the
move off base or to a new home.
Families who lose a service member also
get to keep their low-cost health insurance
for three years, before switching to the retired
military health plan. Dental care is available,
too, for the husband or wife, children or dependent
parent. And some of their personal
debt is forgiven automatically.
The Pentagon also sees that the children
of soldiers and service members who are
killed while on duty or en route to a base can
attend college or a training school of their
choice. The military has a tuition assistance
program for students pursue and finish their
studies toward degrees in four years.
Military deaths happen suddenly, yet
the effects are life-changing for families,
towns and communities. By one estimate,
the Pentagon’s safety net for survivors of
active-duty servicemen and women killed
in Iraq and Afghanistan has provided them
with up to $800,000 in death benefits and
insurance payouts.
At least one financial institution, Chase
Bank, says it will forgive the mortgage, auto
loan or consumer debt of a service member
killed since 2011 either in combat or while
in military service. Unlike the other military
and government-issued benefits, loan forgiveness
is taxed by the IRS. •
AND lAwNDAle News
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - May 31, 2018