Navy begins awarding death benefits electronically
Chelsea J. CarterThe U.S. Navy has followed the other military services by awarding death benefits electronically after a controversy erupted when a grieving father of a dead sailor was mistakenly jailed on fraudulent check charges.
The Navy will now use electronic fund transfers to pay the $100,000 death benefit to eligible beneficiaries of sailors killed while serving their country, said Lt. Cmdr. William Marks, a spokesman for the Navy's Bureau of Personnel.
The move, which was announced in a service-wide message this month, follows two incidents earlier this year where banks raised questions about the validity of paper checks issued by the Navy, Marks said.
Prior to electronically transferring money, the Navy issued paper checks to beneficiaries. Under that format, banks then called the U.S. Treasury to verify validity.
In one case, though, a San Diego bank refused to accept the death benefit check for deposit. In another, a grieving father in Harlingen, Texas, was arrested on suspicion of check fraud.
It was that case, first reported by Harlingen, Texas, television station KGBT, that prompted Navy officials to take action.
"Up until those two cases, we never heard of a problem," Marks said. "When those came to our attention, we immediately reviewed it."
In the Texas case, according to KGBT and The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, John Mayberry tried to deposit his son's check at the Texas State Bank in Harlingen on May 30. When bank officials called the Treasury Department, a representative reported the check was invalid.
The bank called the police, who arrested Mayberry on suspicion of check fraud, the newspaper reported. Mayberry was held six hours in jail before the Navy and Secret Service cleared him of the allegation.
Mayberry's son, Seaman Daniel Mayberry, died May 27 from injuries sustained in a car crash in Virginia Beach, Va.
The Navy began testing electronic fund transfers of the death benefit, also referred to as a death gratuity, in early August. The Navy is the last of the services to begin electronic fund transfers for death benefits. The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps have already adopted similar programs, according to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Marks said electronic fund transfers will be monitored by a casualty assistance officers assigned to grieving families to make sure there is no repeat of the Mayberry case.
He also said beneficiaries can still request paper checks.