Health & Fitness
Shutdown politics hurting families of troops killed in combat
By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
Deplorable.
There have been a lot of words and phrases used to describe the political games being played in D.C. that have led to the suspension of death benefits for the families of military members killed in combat – many of the descriptors turned by the politicians playing the partial federal government shutdown game.
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But to Joe “Junior” Jones, a veteran of the Vietnam War and a 22-year member of the United States Air Force, “deplorable” pretty much sums it up.
“I would like to know who made that decision, but I guess we’ll never find out,” said Jones, 75, a member of Platteville’s Major Christopher Splinter Memorial Post 5274 and the local American Legion post.
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A career in the military taught Jones to shy away from discussing politics, but the shutdown, particularly its impact on family members of those who have given the last full measure of devotion, has appalled Jones and his VFW comrades.
He thinks both sides are to blame, but President Barack Obama, as commander-in-chief, could have done something to prevent the military funding glitch.
“I think the president has dug in his heels and it’s going to be, ‘My way or no way at all,’” Jones said. “Something’s got to give. You know it and I know it. This situation can’t continue.”
But the shutdown goes on, now into its ninth day and, as of Wednesday morning, with no end in sight.
While much of the government continues to operate at some level, the Pentagon has ordered that it will not pay death benefits to families of military members killed in combat while the shutdown and the budget impasse that caused it go on. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel planned to be present at Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday for the return of the remains of service members killed in Afghanistan since the shutdown began last Tuesday.
The fallen include Marine Lance Corp. Jeremiah Collins, 19, of Milwaukee, killed on patrol in Afghanistan on Saturday. As reported by several news outlets Tuesday, Collins’ family, like the families of the other troops killed in combat, won’t receive a death gratuity, money wired to the families within hours to cover funeral, travel, housing and other immediate costs.
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