[CarlV]

By Tony Dokoupil, Senior Writer, NBC News

Grieving families of fallen U.S. service members are expressing outrage over a lapse in government benefits designed to help them pay for funeral costs or travel to meet the flag-draped coffins of their loved ones.

“The government is hurting the wrong people," said Shannon Collins, who lost her son, Marine Lance Corporal Jeremiah M. Collins Jr., over the weekend in Afghanistan. “Families shouldn’t have to worry about how they’re going to bury their child," she told NBC News. "Families shouldn’t have to worry about how they're going to feed their family if they don’t go to work this week.”

Seventeen U.S. service members have died this month, but as a result of the government shutdown, none of their families have received the $100,000 normally sent within three days of the ultimate sacrifice, also known as the “death gratuity.”
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...-benefits?lite

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Carl