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 ALBANY, Ga. (AP) - Stacey Sammis was devastated when she learned her husband, a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, had been killed in Iraq. She was insulted when she received only $6,000 as a military death benefit. Sammis eventually received another $6,000 when the military's "death gratuity" was doubled later in 2003. Last week, she learned she would be getting more.
President Bush signed into law Wednesday an increase in the death benefit from $12,000 to $100,000 for the next of kin of any military personnel killed in combat zones or in combat-related training since Oct. 7, 2001.
"Your life had been almost completely destroyed and 'Here's a check for $6,000,'" said Sammis, an Alexandria, Va., speech therapist whose husband, Capt. Benjamin Sammis, died in an April 2003 helicopter crash.
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