… every effort will be made to recover your remains, and expeditiously evacuated from the battlefield.
Mortuary affairs specialists will clean you, dress you in a dress uniform, with all appropriate decorations, and arrange your return to the United States.
The Air Force will fly you home, first to Dover AFB, DE. No cargo besides human remains will be on the flight. If you were the only fatality, you'll be the only cargo.
A trained Casualty Assistance Officer will contact your next of kin to notify them of your death, and to assist in the preparations for your burial. Your next of kin my choose to bury you in a national cemetery, or in a private cemetery.
Within 24 hours of your death, the service will bestow a gratuity of $100,000 to your next of kin. This is tax free. It's available to cover the routine costs of death- funeral, transportation and lodging for relatives, that sort of thing. There are no restrictions on how it may be used.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service will, within 30 days, pay all outstanding basic pay and allowances to your next of kin.
If you maxed our your Servicemen's Group Life Insurance (and you almost certainly did), SGLI will pay out per your instructions a benefit of $400,000. Like the gratuity, this is tax free.
If your family was living in government quarters at the time of your death, they will be allowed to remain for one year.
If they were living on the economy, they will continue to receive your Basic Allowance for Housing for six months.
If you were eligible for retirement at the time of your death, and signed up for the Survivor Benefit Plan, your spouse will receive an annuity roughly equal to 55% of your base pay for the rest of their live, or until they remarry (unless they remarry after age 55, in which case the annuity continues).
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