Military Kin Struggle With Loss and a Windfall

News Type: Event — Seeded on Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:03 PM EDT

Article Source: The New York Times

us-news, 000, survivors-benefits, and-a-windfall, infusion-of-500, military-kin, spending-with-abandon, struggle-with-loss

Seeded by ShaunV

For some relatives of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the money feels, at first, like an affront, as if the government were putting a price tag on a loved one's life. Others are thrown off balance by the sudden infusion of $500,000, spending with abandon to assuage grief or finding themselves besieged by hard-up friends and relatives. And the newfound wealth often strains relations among in-laws.

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ShaunV

"It's like winning the lottery, and your relatives all look at you like you're a cash cow," said Kathleen B. Moakler, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit advocacy organization. "Money makes people do strange things."

The parents of Sgt. Eli Parker of the Marines, killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, used the $500,000 to finance their retirement, remodel their house near Syracuse and travel to Washington for the Marine Corps Marathon.

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4 votes

#1 - Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:04 PM EDT

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Military Kin Struggle With Loss and a Windfall

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