ARLINGTON, Va., - Surviving family members of servicemembers who die while on duty are entitled to a number of benefits and entitlements.
While questions about many of those immediate benefits, such as life insurance and grief counseling, can be resolved quickly there are also long-term benefits families may have questions about down the road.
To ensure family members can get answers to those questions, the Army National Guard, as part of an overall U.S. Army initiative, has instituted a program that assists surviving family members with obtaining those long-term benefits.
Survivor Outreach Services picks up after the initial family assistance teams work with the family to guide them through the initial process, said Maj. Jim Bibb, the section chief for the Army Guard office.
“There was a recognition from talking with survivors that there had to be something after that (initial) assistance officer finished their time with that family,” he said. “There needed to be a point of contact for the families to continue on.”
Assistance was particularly needed for understanding benefits.
“Some … of the educational benefits for the kids or even for the other family members or spouse don’t come up right away,” said Bibb. “So, financial issues come up, counseling issues come up quite a bit and those are some of the primary things we work to resolve.”
To provide that assistance, the Army Guard currently has 98 survivor outreach coordinators throughout the states and territories, said Bibb. They are assigned based on the number of surviving family members that live in the area.
The Army Guard is also working hand-in-hand with the active duty and the Army Reserve to ensure that resources aren’t doubled or that too many resources are located in one area while other areas have little to draw on, said Bibb.
“We’ve collaborated with the active and reserve and made sure that we’re not having all of our coordinators located on top of each other,” he said. “The agreement is that a coordinator from whatever component will assist a survivor from whatever component.
“That’s why we met with the other two components and mapped out in the country where survivors and resources are located.”
The initial assistance teams that work with the family in the days and weeks after their loved one’s death provide the surviving family with contact information for their local survivor outreach coordinator, said Bibb.
The Army Guard is valuable, because family members often move to areas away from large military installations.
“Our bread and butter is working with the survivors who are geographically dispersed,” said Bibb. “We can reach out and touch a survivor anywhere, and the active duty relies on us to do that.”
Though much of the focus is on benefits resulting from a combat death, traditional Guard and reserve Soldiers are taken care of as well.
“You may have Pvt. Smith who is a (traditional Guard Soldier) and on the civilian side drives a forklift and one day there is an accident and he is killed at work,” said Bibb. “But, his family are surviving military family members and they need to be taken care of.”
Survivor outreach coordinators also help in these instances, said Bibb.
“The benefits may not be the same, based upon your status at the time of death which determines the benefits you may receive,” he said. “But, the coordinator will be able to tell you what benefits you qualify for and assist you in obtaining those benefits.”
Many of those who work as coordinators have been through the process as a surviving family member, said Bibb.
“We have some extremely dedicated coordinators,” he said. “Some of our coordinators are survivors or Gold Star moms or dads. You don’t have to motivate the people that do this job. There is a lot of passion they put into it.”