Soldiers’ benefits enhanced

Soldiers who were maimed or paralyzed during military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are now eligible for payments up to $100,000 depending on the injury, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

Also, military service men and women will now be automatically covered for such injuries by the Servicemembers’ Group Life insurance as a result of an amendment Craig attached to the $81 billion emergency supplemental appropriations bill, which passed Congress earlier this year, a spokesman for the senator said Thursday.

“As Christmas approaches, this should be welcomed news by those who have given so much on behalf of all of us,” said Craig, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The payments – ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 – apply to all qualifying service members regardless of whether their wounds were suffered in combat. Payments also will be made to beneficiaries of wounded service members who have died.

Injuries qualifying for payments include total blindness, deafness or loss of speech, loss of a hand or foot at or above the wrist or ankle, loss of a thumb and index finger of the same hand or loss of both thumbs.

Other qualifying injuries include coma, quadriplegia, paraplegia or hemiplegia and burns greater than second-degree, covering 30 percent of the body or 30 percent of the face.

As of Wednesday, at least 2,109 U.S. military personnel had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Associated Press. Another 15,568 U.S. military personnel had been wounded in action in Iraq as of Nov. 5, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. In Afghanistan, 248 U.S. military personnel had been killed and 652 wounded as of Nov. 5.