DOD expands eligibility for travel benefit

DOD expands eligibility for travel benefit
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, May 23, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — Each servicemember’s child, regardless of age, marital status or if they are blood relatives, can receive a travel or transportation allowance to attend the servicemember’s funeral, a Defense official said Thursday.

At the request of the Defense Department, Congress expanded who is eligible to receive a travel or transportation allowance to attend servicemembers’ funerals, said Michael L. Ward.

Ward is senior program manager for Casualty and Mortuary Affairs and Military Funeral Honors.

As part of the fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress gave a broader definition of children who are eligible for money from the government to attend servicemembers’ funerals, including adopted and illegitimate children, Ward said on Thursday.

"A lot of times in this particular business, when they say children of the deceased, they’re primarily thinking about blood relatives, and so by adding this additional clarification in the statute, this answered all of those questions and the dilemmas that the services faced for many years," he said.


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