Editorial: Lack of security

Thursday, June 29, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.

It is heartbreaking enough that many of the American soldiers killed in Iraq leave behind spouses and children for whom life will never be the same.

It is even worse, however, that clerical errors and webs of bureaucracy are preventing some of these families from receiving the financial benefits that are due them. According to a recent story by The New York Times, military widows often face a complicated paperwork process characterized by lost documents, long delays, poor information and cracks in the laws that govern benefits for survivors.

For example, laws exclude from receiving benefits those widows whose husbands died too early in the war or who were killed in training rather than combat, The Times reports. Sen. Mark DeWine, R-Ohio, criticized such parsing of survivors and asked, "Why do we want to draw arbitrary and capricious lines that exclude widows?"

One 27-year-old woman, who was widowed while pregnant with the couple's second child, told The Times that the U.S. Navy awarded her estranged mother-in-law half of her husband's death benefit because the Navy had lost all updated paperwork naming her and their son as sole beneficiaries. The Navy relied only on outdated documents from 2003. A year later she is still trying to untangle the mess.

Congress has increased the amounts of benefits paid to the families of fallen soldiers. But more money means nothing if those who are entitled to it cannot receive it.

More than 2,500 American military personnel have died in the Iraq war. It is a staggering number of young people to lose for any reason. But the massive bureaucracies of the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department should be able to handle that number of family benefit claims, as they are agencies equipped to handle millions of cases daily.

These families, like their military loved ones who died in service, have sacrificed for the good of all Americans. It is unacceptable that the U.S. government denies them the dignity and security they deserve.