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Three lessons from tragedy

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Brian Fox
  • 8th Maintenance Squadron commander
KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea --  Listen up. You may want to carve some time out of your busy Wolf Pack day to ensure that you've taken care of your family back home, in case something happens to you. This isn't the "normal" speech about wills or Servicemembers' and Veterans' Group Life Insurance. These are hard lessons learned from base X, where people just like you had those tools and thought they'd covered their bases. I've had the unfortunate honor to bury two Airmen from my unit within the span of 10 months. Both members had wills, both had SGLI and both were installation award winners with bright futures. I hope we all can benefit from the unfortunate lessons learned by their poor families. 

Lesson #1: Don't let your guard down. The first fatality under my watch was a senior airman returning from a long deployment, headed back to his hometown to be the best man in his father's wedding. His life ended at 4:30 a.m. the morning of the wedding, after he lost control of his vehicle after intentionally jumping it off the top of a steep hill at over 80 mph. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was ejected on impact. His girlfriend, and his roommate, wore seatbelts, and suffered only bruises. 

The Airman's blood alcohol level was above legal limits. He had driven around his small rural hometown for more than 18 hours catching up with his family and lifelong friends, and drinking. He had apparently started drinking heavily while deployed, but his buddies had "watched over him" during the deployment. Once home, he let his guard down in a perceived "safe" environment, did stupid things and died. I had no choice but to recommend that his death be found not in the line of duty. If he had children, that may have prevented them from receiving veteran's benefits, scholarships, etc. God forbid any Wolf Pack member, who incorrectly thinks that it's "ok" to "drink until you're hammered" at Kunsan, because there are people watching out for you, let your guard down on mid-tour. 

Lesson #2: Make a written plan for your family's use. Based on lessons learned elsewhere in Air Force Special Operations Command, my unit required all personnel to create detailed written guidance to follow in case of death or major injury. This wasn't a will, but one critical thing that it did was notify your family where they could find your will. It also listed the names and phone numbers of uncle Bob and good buddy Pete from Eielson Air Force Base, Ala., who he wanted to be notified and serve as pallbearers. And how he wanted his possessions distributed, etc. 

All told, this tool was four double-sided pages long. My personnel were required to fill it out, have an adult conversation with their spouse/family on its contents and place a copy in a sealed envelope, which we kept in the member's personal information file. We returned the envelope to the member every six months for update as a scheduled training day event. Believe me, while it's tough to discuss such issues with your family or put on paper, doing so was simply invaluable to executing funeral arrangements and memorial services, etc. for the tragedy above. His family was initially too grief-stricken to take action. His directions helped them come to make crucial time-sensitive decisions that only they were legally allowed to, knowing that they were honoring their son's wishes. 

Lesson #3: Single-parents--designate an SGLI beneficiary to take care of your underage child. Our second fatality was an unmarried father, who had a court arrangement to pay child support to his son's mother. He had SGLI, a will and the same "what to do in case I die" document in his files. His young child and his own parents were properly identified with current contact data on his Virtual Record of Emergency Data form. The problem was, he had not taken steps to designate a specific beneficiary on his SGLI form to take care of his three year-old child until adulthood. 

The Airman, incorrectly, assumed either his son's mom, or his own parents, would receive the SGLI payout--and take care of his son until adulthood. As his son was still alive, SGLI was obligated to pay his son, instead of his parents. With no beneficiary designated, the state took over and placed the SGLI payout into a trust, which the child will take possession of at age 18. Neither the child's mother, nor the child's grandparents had legal authority to touch the SGLI money. His son's mom no longer receives monthly child support payments to help raise the child--we're pretty certain this wasn't the Airman's intent. Single parents, do yourself a favor and visit Military Personnel Flight customer service to discuss designating a beneficiary on your SGLI form to take care of the immediate needs of your child until they become an adult. 

May such tragedy never strike you. It's truly an honor to serve with you in the Wolf Pack.