Photo By Staff Sgt. Victor Everhart | FORT GORDON, GA – Human resources specialists assigned to Headquarters and...... read more read more
FORT GORDON, GEORGIA – When you think readiness in the Army, the first thing that usually comes to mind is physical fitness tests and preparing for war not updating personal administrative records.
It is each Soldier's responsibility to keep their casualty documents up-to-date.
There are two forms critical to supporting your Survivors if something were to happen to you: DD Form 93, Record of Emergency Data, and SGLV Form 8286, service members' Group Life Insurance, or SGLI, Election and Certificate. Together these two documents are known in the military as the "Casualty Documents."
If a Soldier becomes a casualty, the Army wants to be able to quickly notify the appropriate family members, and if the Soldier pays the ultimate sacrifice, the Army wants to ensure that they execute the Soldier's intent as they wished.
It is the responsibility of all Soldiers to update their own casualty documents and to ensure their intent is annotated properly. After all, only the Soldier knows when changes need to be made to either the Record of Emergency Data, the DD Form 93, or Service members' Group Life Insurance, or SGLV. Likewise, Army leaders and human resources specialists must understand every field on these forms as well as the ramifications of uneducated choices by Soldiers and how they affect their Survivors.
During the last week leadership from the Headquarters and Headquarters Company 35th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade are continually ensuring all personnel assigned in the company are 100% accurate updating these critical records.
Leaders must provide every opportunity for Soldiers to update their records, and the human resources specialist must fully understand casualty documents and be able to articulate the problems with some elections and decisions made by Soldiers. They also need to be able to provide guidance to each Soldier so that the Soldier's intent is captured and that the Soldier fully understands the ramifications of individual decisions.
“I’ve seen Soldiers make big mistakes with DD93’s and SGLI’s,” said Sgt. Nicole Poindexter, a human resources NCO assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 35th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade. “It’s a hard topic to talk about, but being ready for anything makes a world of difference, knowing that your family will be taken care of if something were to happen to you can take a load off of your mind and keep you focused on the mission so you make it back home to them.”
Human resources specialists need to ask the Soldier whom they want to receive the death gratuity and be able to explain the importance of designating recipients. When HR specialists don't ask Soldiers this question and explain it, Soldiers sometimes fail to update death-gratuity beneficiaries after a divorce. They choose an organization or another non-human entity that cannot be paid according to the law. They leave death gratuity to a minor child, not knowing that DFAS cannot pay out the entitlement to an underage beneficiary.
The guardian, even the biological parent, must go to court and have themselves declared guardian of the child, after which DFAS will pay the guardian on behalf of the child. Overall, these designations -- or lack of designations -- result in unnecessary stress for the survivors during an already difficult time.
Additionally, although the law also states that death gratuity will be distributed in 10 percent increments, obsolete DD Forms 93 show elections of 25 percent, 35 percent, etc. When Soldiers elect increments other than 10 percent, their chosen beneficiary is disallowed and that portion to be distributed "by law," and those Soldiers lose their ability to choose the beneficiary.
During the last week Lion Brigade leadership helped company leadership by making this update series a mandatory event, further pushing the importance of this part of readiness.
These records need to be updated quarterly, but taking ownership of your own readiness means being on top of these records and ensuring anytime you have a question or need to make a change that you see your human resources personnel to make the needed changes, it could be the difference of you setting your family on a path of success or not.
Granted no one wants to talk about their own death or the possibility of it, but the importance of having these forms updated frequently prevents your family from struggling financially to see your obligations through and any arrangements you set.
| Date Taken: | 09.15.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.18.2017 16:25 |
| Story ID: | 248747 |
| Location: | FORT GORDON, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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