Previously, service members had to fill out paperwork authorizing family members to receive the full $400,000 entitled to them and sometimes they mistakenly checked the wrong box and accidentally lowered the amount of benefit due their loved one. This resulted in unnecessary financial shortfalls to the families of fallen soldiers, in addition to enduring the heartbreak of losing a loved one.
I learned about the shortfall in procedure after one of my constituents lost her son in Afghanistan. I received the news that he died shortly after I was elected for the first time, and it was a call I will never forget: young Christopher Stark had been killed in action.
In the years following that phone call, I got to know Christopher’s brave mom, Teresa Stark. I learned that when Christopher deployed to Afghanistan, he opted for what he believed was an additional $200,000 of life insurance, but mistakenly opted out of the full $400,000 of coverage that should have been available to him.
Sadly, we have learned this was not the only case of this mistake being made and families being shortchanged the benefits they are due. As a result, I authored a provision in the 2019 NDAA to make sure service members who are deployed to a combat zone automatically receive the full life insurance coverage benefit of $400,000.
Service members are faced with so many details when duty calls them to the frontlines. My provision removes one more mental burden from them when they deploy and ensures that their families receive what they are due should their loved one not come home.
Christopher Stark was a 2007 graduate of Monett High School where he participated in JROTC, football, basketball and baseball. He and his mother moved to Nevada, MO, and he enlisted in the United States Army in August 2008 and served as part of the 705th Unit with the 63rd Explosive Ordinance Disposal Battalion 20th Support Command until he was killed by an IED (bomb) in COP Tangi, Afghanistan on February 28, 2011.
From the desk of United States Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler
