9/11 -- Five Years Later

Everything on TV at this moment is recollecting 9/11/2001.... as it should. TV is where most of us first found out what was going on after 8:46 AM EST that day! I am glad to see much more recollection of the Pentagon victims of 9/11 today than I have noticed before. I don't know much about United Flt 93 whose passengers retook the plane in order to force a crash into the fields of Shanksville, PA -- but I DO know that a number of the on-board organizers of the passenger rebellion were military veterans and Federal officers. I wish the military folks who have fought back in all this were given the full respect and all their other due.

As I'm writing this. "TODAY" is broadcasting Toby Keith as he sings his patriotic anthem, "American Soldier." He is from a Veteran's family and wrote/sings these poignant words because he understands, personally, what military people and veterans give and HAVE given up to protect our country. I feel the shock of all Americans and much of the sadness of the victims' families as we recall all the innocent victims in both of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC), in the Pentagon, and in the Shanksville field (instead of the White House or US Capitol Building as intended by mentally-unbalanced Islamic-fascist terrorists). But we should differentiate (calmly and politely) between the mass of victims, and the few victims who were ALSO actual heroes who helped or tried to help others selflessly during these tragic events.

I am a little non-plussed or chagrined or underwhelmed by the frequent referral to ALL of those victims lost as if they were ALL heroes that day just by having been caught in the tragedy. Even those who did not do anything particularly heroic, like lead others to safety or walk into the jaws of death on a mission to save life and help others. There WERE many people who were heroes that day -- and their heroism is all the more noteworthy because of things they did which transcended their being just victims during the two-hour nightmare which caused an irrevocable mutation to our concept of any normal workday.

I am concerned even more that American soldiers who go to fight back against terrorism are not given the same benefits as those who were purely victims in the 9/11 tragedy. When I first enlisted in the US military, I wrote a poem whose emotion reflected my feeling of soldiers' sacrifices being completely unappreciated as evidenced by a death gratuity benefit of only $500 USD. That, and a free flag and burial if Killed In Action fighting a war for their country. It did not seem a fair trade for the life I was offering to sacrifice, if necessary, for my country. That was true when the Vietnam War was beginning to heat up and expand operational involvement for American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines.

In case you don't know, military people have never been able to get life insurance like non-military people can. That is because civilian insurance has built-in military shortchanges with policy "war exclusion clauses," and "aviation exclusion clauses" which cause the insurance not to pay off due to combat or aviation death or dismemberment. Luckily, I had bought a $10,000 policy during college a year before I rejoined the military in the late 60's -- it had neither war nor aviation clauses. (I WILL say the insurance company weaseled out of communicating with me when I wrote them 2-3 years later from my base in Vietnam; I was trying to update my insurance beneficiary information from my marriage the day before I left for Vietnam.)

In the years after Vietnam, the US government developed Servicemen's Group Life Insurance and, later, US Group Life Insurance where everyone in the military was automatically enrolled to submit monthly premiums (w/ right of declining) for a $10,000 policy. That was increased annually to allow options, as I recall, up to $50,000. These government-sponsored insurances basically got around the war and aviation exclusions which would have returned a dead soldier's family to receipt of only the $500 Death Gratutity Benefit existing when I first "joined up." You must realize, this is like any other insurance with regular monthly premiums being paid by each individual servicemember according to his age & family status. In recent years, with the Gulf Wars, the total amount that can be underwritten is now up to $100,000 of group life insurance. So, at least, military people and their families can now get death and dismemberment insurance that is normally available to all civilians and their families.

In closing, I just want to mention the irony of the receipt of millions of dollars in tribute to civilian victims who were workers in a very money-oriented world & financial center (the World Trade Center). This was the result of "the Jersey Girls" civilian activist efforts to salve the grief and vulnerability of the 2700 WTC victims' families. It was a somewhat understandable reaction by money-oriented & financial-security-sensitive people who had the same and BETTER access to purchasing life insurance policies than any military person. But, correct me if I'm mistaken, I don't think any of the million-dollar payouts to WTC widows and widowers went to Pentagon victims' or Shanksville victims' families. And it is a pity that none of our 2700 US combat heroes in Afghanistan and Iraq has a Jersey Girl to lobby for anything besides payoff on their normal life insurance policies. Oh, I think the "Death Benefit" has gone up to a couple of thousand dollars now. These days, there still ain't no SOLDIER feeling like a million bucks!