Bills Would Let Military Death Benefit Go to Guardian

Bills Would Let Military Death Benefit Go to Guardian
Donna St. George 

Lawmakers introduced companion bills in the House and Senate yesterday that would allow grandparents and other relatives raising children of fallen troops to be designated as beneficiaries of a $100,000 "death gratuity."

The bills, by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), followed a story yesterday in The Washington Post that profiled Susan Jaenke, an Iowa woman who is raising a 9-year-old granddaughter after Jaenke's 29-year-old daughter, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jaime S. Jaenke, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Susan Jaenke could not collect the $100,000 benefit her daughter thought she had assigned to her because of strict next-of-kin regulations. Of the proposed change in law, she said yesterday: "To us, this would have made all the difference in the world." 

The House bill leaves an opening for courts to resolve retroactive cases such as the Jaenkes', in which the fallen service member "left a clear expression of intent."

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