Originally Posted by
run4it
First, this is 5 years old. You're just now finding it?
Now, let's get into the real facts:
What this piece doesn't mention is that military personnel are automatically insured under the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance program, which pays a maximum of $400,000 to the families of servicement killed while on active service -- the same as the base amount paid to the families of civilians killed in the 9/11 attacks.
That, and spouses are paid $833 per month, with $211 per month for each dependent child.
So let's say that the average servicemember has 2 kids, averaging 10 years old a piece. That means that by age 18, the family would have accrued $50,640 in benefits for the kids. Then let's say that the average spouse of a killed servicemember is 30. If she lives to be the national average lifespan of 75 years, that's $1,949,220 for the remaining 45 years. So you're really talking, over a lifetime, an average of about $2 million dollars to families of soldiers, above the 1.8 million average to 9/11 victims.
Note that I was pretty generous there. Most enlisted soldiers on the front line are well under the age of 30, meaning younger children and wives. But I'll give you the age of 30 just for a starting point.