Yes, we do love our soldiers and their sacrificing families

[Paranoid Pessimist]

"Incidentally, did you know that a retired serviceman’s widow does not receive a penny of his pension after he dies? A Mrs. Dermody, whose four sons are serving Uncle Sam, just lost her marine husband, who served from 1954 to 1974, and she informs me that his pension stopped the day he passed away. Is this some kind of joke? Is this the way we treat the families of those who do the fighting for the Kagans, the Podhoretzes and the Kristols? And the Clintons and Giulianis"?

http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_victory_that_wrecked_israel/

[atreides1]

1. Is this the way we treat the families of those who do the fighting

In one word YES!!!!!

But it's not we who are doing this, it's the government. This is the nature of things, when the spouse who served dies the money stops, the only way to keep this from happening is to change the laws that govern military retiree pensions.

[OneBlueSky]

2. regarding pension benefits for surviving spouses . . .

my dad was a retired Army officer . . . as he got older, he investigated this very issue and found that the government offers retirees an option to provide for their survivors . . . for a modest deduction in his monthly check, he was able to ensure that my mom received a percentage of his monthly allotment every month for life . . . I don't recall exactly what the percentage was, but I believe it was somewhere in the 60-70% range . . . after he passed away in 1987, mom continued to receive a monthly check until her passing in 1990 . . .