Question What would Uncle Sam do for a young pregnant widow of a US Navy serviceman in 1942
- Thread starter Derek Jackson
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A Service member could elect to pay for SGLI insurance that would disperse through the VA. During WW2 the max benefit was $10,000.00, which is equivalent to roughly 185k now.
Post-war, if her husband's remains were known and accessible the government would provide at no cost to relocate them. They could be bought to a VA cemetery or one of their own choice. All burial fees would be covered.
A soldier or sailor would continued to be paid while listed as MIA, so she would be entitled to that money as well.
Her and her child would be eligible to use the GI Bill under modern eligibility standards, but I'm not sure about that era. She should be eligible for a VA home loan as well.
Post-war, if her husband's remains were known and accessible the government would provide at no cost to relocate them. They could be bought to a VA cemetery or one of their own choice. All burial fees would be covered.
A soldier or sailor would continued to be paid while listed as MIA, so she would be entitled to that money as well.
Her and her child would be eligible to use the GI Bill under modern eligibility standards, but I'm not sure about that era. She should be eligible for a VA home loan as well.
Thank you for a very knowledgeable and detailed answer.
And I’m going to assume that not everyone got that max benefit?
Thank you for a very knowledgeable and detailed answer.
And I’m going to assume that not everyone got that max benefit?
No, not everyone would. Even today the SGLI benefits are elective and require the service member to pay a small amount per month. Its something like 20 bucks a month that only a fool would decline. The WW2 benefits would be the same way, and some guys would have not opted in because not knowing about it, being too cheap and wanting to save a few dollars, or even moral reasons.
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Today if you die on active duty your spouse would also get any pension you were entitled to. I’m not sure about WW II, but my wife had an uncle killed in the Battle of the Bulge and his widow never remarried because she would lose his pension. It could be the widow’s pensions were enacted sometime post war.
I AM IMAGINING a sailor on a destroyer sunk by enemy action. She hopes he somehow survived for some years afterwards
Pretty much everyone carried the full $10K. In WW II and all the way through to 1974 the coverage was free, all the service member had to do was opt in. They could name any immediate family member(s) (i.e Parent(s), Spounse, Children, Sibling(s) as beneficiary. At it's peak (1944) there were some 15,899,444 policies issued for National Service Life Insurance (NSLI)Thank you for a very knowledgeable and detailed answer.
And I’m going to assume that not everyone got that max benefit?
The Amount was issued in 120 monthly payment and had a 2.25% interest rate per/anum. That worked out to $83.33.mo/$1,000 yr. In 1945 the median individual annual income was $906/yr with 53.*% of all Americans earning below that figure, while the total household income had a medial of $2,620. The monthly insurance payout was higher than the median individual income in 1944-1945.
While the draft did drive plenty of 18 year olds to "voluntarily" enlist as to avoid service in the infantry, it did not take 18 years olds . Estimates are as high as 65% of all personal were driven by the draft in one form or the other, so I don't want to diminished that. It was so important that the DOD had serious concerns about the All Volunteer Force when it rolled out.
But 19 year olds were screened and selected by their local draft board for induction during the year they turned 20. Draft boards were assigned a quota to fill and would do so by selecting young men from their area.
The draft lottery was restored in 1969 to call men to service in 1970, and men born in between 1944 and 1950 were eligible. There after the draft lottery would select men who were to be 20 years old during the calendar year of their induction. For example my father was born in 1953, and his birthrate was included in the 1972 lottery for hypothetical induction in 1973.
Notice the year.... the lottery pulled from an initial pool of men as old as 25, and eliminated marriage and college as deferments. A lot of men who thought they had previously escaped eligibility now found themselves being drafted. That was a major turning point in resistance to the Vietnam War.