Still Paying for the Civil War - Veterans' Benefits Live On Long After Bullets Stop

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed May 28, 2014, 11:32 AM - Edit history (2)

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this story, but it is true. The U.S. government is still paying a pension related to the Civil War. Yes, our Civil War, the "recent unpleasantness" that lasted from 1861 to 1865.

If you have time to read just one newspaper, make it The Wall Street Journal.. (The first period is part of the title.)

Veterans' Benefits Live On Long After Bullets Stop - WSJ.com

By Michael M. Phillips

WILKESBORO, N.C.—Each month, Irene Triplett collects $73.13 from the Department of Veterans Affairs, a pension payment for her father's military service—in the Civil War.

More than 3 million men fought and 530,000 men died in the conflict between North and South. Pvt. Mose Triplett joined the rebels, deserted on the road to Gettysburg, defected to the Union and married so late in life to a woman so young that their daughter Irene is today 84 years old—and the last child of any Civil War veteran still on the VA benefits rolls.

Ms. Triplett's pension, small as it is, stands as a reminder that war's bills don't stop coming when the guns fall silent. The VA is still paying benefits to 16 widows and children of veterans from the 1898 Spanish-American War. ... The last U.S. World War I veteran died in 2011. But 4,038 widows, sons and daughters get monthly VA pension or other payments. The government's annual tab for surviving family from those long-ago wars comes to $16.5 million.

Spouses, parents and children of deceased veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan received $6.7 billion in the 2013 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Payments are based on financial need, any disabilities, and whether the veteran's death was tied to military service. ... Those payments don't include the costs of fighting or caring for the veterans themselves. A Harvard University study last year projected the final bill for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would hit $4 trillion to $6 trillion in the coming decades.
....

Write to Michael M. Phillips at [e-mail]

[Uncle Joe]

1. War is the ultimate "gift" that keeps on giving in one form or another.

Thanks for the thread, mahatmakanejeeves.

[underpants]

2. Wow

That is amazing