Posted on 10/08/2013 11:06:28 PM PDT by Pride_of_the_Bluegrass
WASHINGTON — The families of four soldiers killed in Afghanistan last weekend will not receive death benefits or the money to pay for their funerals because of the government shutdown.
The bodies of Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins, 25; Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, 24; Sgt. Joseph M. Peters, 24; and First Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, 25, will arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday. The four soldiers were killed Sunday in the Zhari district of Kandahar Province when enemy forces attacked their unit with explosives.
But if their families want to meet the plane, they will have to pay their own way to Delaware.
Under the shutdown, Carl Woog, a Defense Department spokesman, said on Tuesday, “the Department of Defense does not currently have the authority to pay death gratuities and other key benefits for the survivors of service members killed in action.”
The benefits include $100,000 to each family; a 12-month basic allowance for housing, usually given in a lump sum to survivors commensurate with the rank of the service member; and burial benefits. The benefits are also being withheld from the family of Lance Cpl. Jeremiah Collins Jr., 19, of the Marines, whose death on Saturday in Helmand Province is being investigated by the Pentagon.
New hardships caused by the shutdown seem to emerge every day as the standoff between President Obama and Congressional Republicans entered its second week. But the denial of benefits to the families of fallen soldiers — however temporary — led to an unusual burst of outrage.
Senators took the floor to express their anger. In the House, members scrambled to write a bill to remedy the problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is the NYT...they’ll never lay the blame at Obastard’s feet.
Just found out another little tidbit of info on the death benefits issue for our fallen servicemembers...
Our Secretary of Defense (Hagel) after the “partial” shutdown has occurred, has had his personal meeting and dining facilities (entertainment) upgraded since last week...
And yet, at the orders of Obama has instructed the DoD lawyers to shutdown the disbursement mechanisms that give families of fallen soldiers the $100K that is supposed to be given to them within 72 hours of the notification of next of kin...
Needless to say this is yet another monkey in the wrench that Obama is party to,that deserves impeachment at the very least...Hagel needs to be forced out of that position yesterday because of this...
I’m really getting tired of seeing so much crap being dealt out by this government and administration against our armed forces and Veterans in this country...
Some of these pimples need to be popped...
My rage is only quelled by logistical infeasibility at this particular junction...
Getting tired of hitting on my congressman’s office about these things and not seeing much in the way of action by these power hungry sluts that occupy D.C. at the moment...
I’m sure I have to be on some watch list by now...Even though I have kept it as civil as possible when Ido talk to them...It is getting harder and harder to maintain that civility given the environment now...
Not sure what it is we can do...Calls and emails are just plain lame, they do not have the impact a physical meeting would if I had the chance to get up there...
I gotta go cool off...
Just ask anyone here who cares, to just allow me some room to vent...
Later...
I thought we had already bugged out of Afghanistan after what twelve years now. Bring the troops home.
Do people in NE still have faith in Hagel? If so, I guess we can call them Hagelians.
People in AZ don’t impress me any more as each day passes with their silly senators.
The Pay Our Military Act was signed into Federal Law by Obama on 9-30-2013.
Obama KNEW that death benefits were covered when he signed the bill into Law on 9-30-2013 !
This documents that Commander in Chief Obama CHOSE to punish, after death,” those who had given their last full measure of devotion” by dictating that Funeral Expenses be denied to HIS dead Warriors.
Obama has thus shown himself to be a ghoulish tyrant who is more than willing to inflict maximum pain “on his own people,” to borrow an expression that Obama used recently against his fellow tyrant in Syria.
Please post on this thread the hotlinks to any news articles on the 26 slain Warriors that Obama has refused to pay funeral expenses for, prior to Obama’s yesterday’s CYA “legal” action.
Obama must be held accountable for this ghoulish Dereliction of Duty as the Commander in Chief.
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