Army Orders Soldiers to Shed Dragon Skin or Lose SGLI Death Benefits

[Jara sang]

http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpDefense&htmlCategoryID=30&htmlId=4514


Army Orders Soldiers to Shed Dragon Skin or Lose SGLI Death Benefits


By Nathaniel R. Helms


Two deploying soldiers and a concerned mother reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Army appears to be singling out soldiers who have purchased Pinnacle's Dragon Skin Body Armor for special treatment. The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action.

[terryg11]

1. that's a new twist

what does SGLI stand for anyway? I suppose they are required to use some other brand of body armor sanctioned by the army?

[AllegroRondo]

2. SGLI = Soldiers Group Life Insurance

its the standard term life insurance offered to soldiers via payroll deduction. Not a bad deal, you get $400,000 coverage for about $20 a month, and there is no exception for combat death. (Most civilian life insurance policies will not pay if you die in combat)

[Ian David]

3. Pinnacle must not have paid any kickbacks through Abramoff. n/t

[Dhalgren]

4. Somebody's not getting their kick-back...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. A debate on this type of armor vs regular armor

was on the News Hour last week. A guy who headed a concerned veteran's group with no ties to the company making the private body armor made some really good points about how it was safer. Even the guy on the other side never said that the armor was bad. This whole thing sounds like the dragon skin company didn't pay kickbacks and so are being taken off the playing field.

[Old Vet]

6. All privately bought armour as I read

[Contrary1]

7. I would respond with a hearty "Go Cheney yourself",

and wear the armor anyway. The odds are better for coming back home.

If the worst case scenario did happen, I would expect my family to pursue
court action, not just for the money, but to draw attention to this form of
blackmail being used by the government.

Come to think of it, I believe legal action should be taken by all the troops
being told this, once they are safely back in the US; of course.

"Accidents" do happen.

[papau]

8. SGLI is a law - program administered by Pru - no way a commander can

deny benefits - to anyone - for any reason.

But "facing disciplinary action" is a policy question - and here I suspect the not invented here problem - a very real likelyhood of punishment.

On edit: - I should have mentioned that when I had a brief fling at administering SGLI (with the help of many others) the Pentagon ordered certain VietNam deaths to be kept as MIA - and no one objected as it was in the interest of the survivors.

After about 6 -7 years we began to pay them out with back interest - but the 10,000 benefit in those day did not not compare to the value of being the spouse of an active duty - albeit MIA - person. This also applied to VietNam death claims at private insurers like United Life Insurance Company (USLICO - now part of ING).