Troops’ kin protest personal effects policy

Troops’ kin protest personal effects policy

By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Sep 12, 2009 9:02:24 EDT

Elaine Farren was given the American flag draped over her Marine son’s coffin.

She was handed his Purple Heart. And as Lance Cpl. Roger Hager’s primary beneficiary, she’s getting his life insurance payout, too, worth about $400,000.

But Farren did not receive what she wanted most: her son’s personal effects.

Hager, a small arms repairman assigned to 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., was killed July 8 along with Master Sgt. John Hayes in a roadside bomb blast in southern Afghanistan. He did not have a will — and he did not identify Farren as his primary next of kin before he deployed in April — so the Defense Department sent the 20-year-old’s clothing and other belongings to his father, from whom his mother has been estranged for years.

Under Pentagon policy, personal effects go to the oldest parent if the deceased service member has no spouse or children. In Hager’s case, that’s his dad.

Farren was outraged — but not alone. She joins other parents whose anguish over the loss of their loved ones has been exacerbated by a policy they deem cruel and unfair.

“It destroyed me,” said Farren, of Gibsonville, N.C.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/army_property_091209w/