Preparing for the worst - Part 2: Mortuary Affairs Published March 21, 2011 By 2nd Lt. Laura Balch Nellis Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- When a military member dies, the time period for family and friends to grieve begins. Unfortunately, during this initial grieving period, it is also time to make important decisions regarding the military member's funeral and burial. For this reason, the Air Force has created casualty assistance teams, which, in conjunction with casualty assistance and mortuary affairs offices, function as a helping hand to the grieving. On the Virtual Record of Emergency Data form, a military member designates a family member to be the Person Authorized to Direct Disposition. The PADD is the sole person authorized to make decisions regarding the funeral and burial of the deceased. In the event of a military member's death, the casualty assistance team will notify the PADD. Within eight hours of the official notification, a casualty assistance office representative will contact the PADD and within 12 hours, a mortuary affairs office representative will contact the PADD. These two offices make themselves known to the PADD so that they can begin offering their services as soon as possible. The casualty assistance team is comprised of three people whose purpose is to assist the PADD, family members and friends of the deceased. The first member of this team is the Summary Court Officer. This person is typically a company grade officer. He or she is responsible for getting all personal property of the deceased member back to the PADD (or the Authorized Recipient of Personal Property, if that person is someone other than the PADD). The Summary Court Officer fulfills the role of the official military representative of the deceased. The second person on the casualty assistance team is the escort. This person must be of equal or higher rank than the deceased military member. The escort is responsible for accompanying the body from the place of death to the place of internment, which follows a tradition that was established by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. The final member of the team is the Family Liaison Officer. This person is either a senior noncommissioned officer or a company grade officer. The Family Liaison Officer is responsible for assisting the family in any way possible to give family members what they need to grieve. Once all of these people have contacted the PADD, he or she will begin to make decisions regarding the funeral and burial of the deceased military member. If the PADD chooses to be responsible for all the funeral- and burial-related expenses, then the PADD must keep all receipts and the government will reimburse the PADD up to $8,700. If the PADD instead chooses for the government to cover the funeral- and burial-related expenses, then the government will take care of the primary funeral care entitlements, secondary expenses, military honors, and family transportation and lodging. Primary funeral care entitlements will be arranged at the local military mortuary facility where the military member passed away. These entitlements include: casketing, embalming, dressing, cosmetics and transportation. The secondary expenses include obituary notifications, limo services, use of the receiving funeral home facility, flowers, plot, vault, and opening and closing the grave. The government will pay up to a certain amount, depending on the cemetery type, to cover secondary expenses. The three types of cemeteries include national, government and private cemeteries. If the military member is buried at a national cemetery, the government will pay up to $1,000 for secondary expenses. If the military member is buried at a government cemetery, the government will pay up to $3,600. If the military member is buried at a private cemetery, the government will pay up to $6,000. The PADD will be responsible for secondary costs that exceed these amounts. As long as the deceased military member was not a felon, the PADD has the option to choose whether or not the deceased will receive full military honors. In choosing to have military honors, a 21-person team will participate in the burial proceedings. The team includes four color guard members, six pallbearers, eight firing squadron members, one NCO-in-charge or officer-in-charge, one chaplain and one bugle player. The final mortuary entitlement available involves the government covering the round-trip transportation costs, from each person's place of origin to the place of internment and back to the place of origin, and providing two days of per diem pay and reimbursement for lodging costs to the following people: the deceased military member's parents, the member's siblings, the member's dependents (up to age 23 if the dependents are in college), the member's spouse and the member's spouse's parents. Mortuary entitlements are significantly reduced for military dependents. If a dependent of an active duty member passes away, the government covers transportation costs from the dependent's place of death to the place of internment. Mortuary entitlements for retirees and dependents of retirees are available only if the person passes away at a military facility. If this occurs, the government will cover transportation costs that are related to moving the person from his or her place of death to his or her last place of residence. For more information about mortuary entitlements, contact Wilkie Walker at the mortuary affairs office at 652-7263.
