Senate revises death benefits for reservists

Senate revises death benefits for reservists
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Dec 1, 2011 18:16:30 EST
A retroactive change in death benefits that would extend payment to reservists who die at home during drill weekends passed the Senate on Thursday by voice vote.

Retroactive to Jan. 1, 2010, death gratuity and burial benefits provided for active-duty deaths will be extended to reservists who die while at home during or between successive days of inactive duty training, under the amendment to the 2012 defense authorization bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark..

Pryor’s interest is the result of a 2010 death of Army National Guard Capt. Samson Luke, a member of the 142nd Field Artillery Regiment, who lived about 15 minutes from his weekend training site of Fort Chaffee, Ark. While many members of his unit stayed in hotels on the weekend, Luke went home, where he died in his sleep after spending the day working in a cold warehouse.

Luke’s family initially received the military’s $100,000 death gratuity and $8,000 in other death benefits but were forced to repay the money for what Pryor said was “a classic case of getting pencil-whipped by the government.”
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