Senate OKs sole survivor benefits

The Pentagon policy has roots in the deaths of the five Sullivan brothers when their ship sank in 1942.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Fresno deputy sheriff Jason Hubbard and other “sole survivor” veterans like him can reclaim certain benefits under a bill approved Thursday by the Senate.

Moving with uncharacteristic speed, the Senate approved what sympathetic lawmakers termed the “Hubbard Act” as part of a much larger defense package. It restores some but not all of the benefits lost by veterans who leave the service early following the deaths of siblings.

“We will not stop until sole survivors receive full separation benefits,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein declared. “They have sacrificed enough already. They should not suffer at the hands of a cold bureaucracy.”

Only two weeks ago, Hubbard stood alongside Feinstein and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., at a Capitol Hill news conference convened to introduce the benefits bill. The legislative language is now included in a must-pass defense authorization bill for Fiscal 2009, which is a political vehicle with unstoppable momentum.

“I’m humbled,” Hubbard said at the April 16 news conference.

Hubbard was unwittingly victimized by the Pentagon’s desire to avoid a complete family catastrophe.

In November 2004, Hubbard’s brother Jared died in Iraq.

Hubbard and his brother Nathan subsequently enlisted in the Army. Last August, Nathan Hubbard died in a helicopter crash in Iraq. Under a longstanding military policy, Hubbard was removed from the combat zone and given an opportunity to leave the Army before the end of his own three-year enlistment.

The Pentagon’s policy is designed to ensure that an entire family is not wiped out in combat. The policy has at least informal roots in the World War II experiences of the five Sullivan brothers, who died together when the U.S.S. Juneau sunk in 1942.

But by leaving the Army after 30 months instead of the 36 months he had originally signed up for, Hubbard was also deemed to have forfeited certain perks. The Army required him to repay $2,000 from his initial $6,000 enlistment bonus, and he was denied transitional health and education benefits.

After congressional complaints, the Army relented on the enlistment bonus and health benefits.

The Senate bill authorizes sole survivors to receive separation pay, 120 days worth of transitional health care and two year’s access to military commissaries and recreation facilities.

Other benefits, though, remain under the control of the Department of Veterans Affairs and are outside the scope of the defense authorization bill.