They died as heroes in Afghanistan at the beginning of the war on terrorism, but a year later, their widows are struggling to make ends meet.
Wives of U.S. Marines killed in Operation Enduring Freedom say their income has been slashed significantly, their military housing allowances yanked, and some have been forced to uproot and move to places where it costs less to live.
They say they do not begrudge the millions of dollars handed out to 9/11 victims by charities and the government. But some military widows say they feel irritated that their husbands died to prevent another terror attack, yet the families they left behind have gotten much less help.
“Matthew died because of 9/11. Is he no less a hero?” asked Mary Ellen Bancroft, a mother of three whose husband, 29, was the aircraft commander of a KC-130 refueling plane that crashed in Pakistan on Jan. 9, 2002. All seven Marines aboard were killed.
As America braces for possible war against Iraq, Bancroft and other widows have somber warnings for the tens of thousands of military families whose loved ones have been deployed to the Persian Gulf, or are on their way.
“If the worst happens, I cannot say that you will be taken care of, because that has not been my experience,” Bancroft told The Post.
Jennifer Germosen’s husband Scott, 37, who was born in Queens, also died in the crash that took Matthew Bancroft’s life. She and her daughter, Alyssa, 2, recently moved to a tiny town in Utah, where they knew no one, because she could not afford to stay in housing near her husband’s former base in San Diego – “the only home my husband and I had,” she said.
The military, according to policy, cut off her nearly $1,800- a-month housing allowance exactly six months after Scott’s death. Her monthly Veterans Affairs survivor benefits of about $1,285, plus Social Security, amount to half what her husband was taking home. To meet expenses, she has dipped into her nest egg – the $250,000 she received from a military life insurance policy her husband paid for.
“We have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. We’re OK,” she said.
Scott, who had a cousin killed on 9/11 – a passenger on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center – was determined to fight back and insisted on going to Afghanistan.
“He was born and raised in New York City, and he felt this guy [Osama bin Laden] was messing with his home, messing with his family. He had to go,” Jennifer said.
Bancroft, who has a baby girl, Matthew’s daughter, and two teens from another marriage, describes herself sarcastically as a “squatter” at the San Diego base.
“It’s been months of having to worry every day. Do I have a home tomorrow? Do I have an eviction notice coming my way?” she said, adding that her pleas for help to military brass have gotten nowhere.
Though Bancroft and her two older sons, ages 13 and 14, want to remain in San Diego, housing is so expensive there she plans to move to Clovis, a small town outside Fresno, over 300 miles away.
Jennifer McCollum, the widow of the other co-pilot of the doomed KC-130, is also leaving San Diego because she can’t make ends meet on roughly half the $4,000-a- month her husband, Daniel, earned.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m biting the hand that feeds me, but at the same time, there is a discrepancy [with the 9/11 families],” she said.
The situation isn’t much better for Shannon Spann, the widow of Johnny “Mike” Spann, the CIA officer who was killed Dec. 10, 2001, shortly after trying to interview American Taliban John Lindh during a prison uprising.
Spouses or next of kin of CIA officers killed in the line of duty or on high-risk missions get one-year’s pay as a one-time “special death gratuity,” a CIA spokesman said. Beyond that, spouses get worker’s compensation payments like any other federal employee.
Shannon, a mother of three and a CIA officer herself, declined to comment. Co-workers have started a fund for her.
Helping them cope
Death benefits and other financial assistance available to the kin of those who have died in the war on terror:
U.S. military service member///CIA officer///9/11 victim
Immediate assistance: $6,000 cash “death gratuity” for immediate needs///nearly $10,000 gratuity///Red Cross and other charities distributed an average $170,000 each to families of civilians and $1 million each to families of cops and firefighters.
Monthly survivor payments: $948 for a spouse, plus $237 for each dependent child///Worker’s Compensation payments from 50% of salary for a spouse to 75% for a widow and two or more dependent children/// Employee pensions.
Life insurance: $250,000, from military policy that service members buy in monthly $20 payroll deductions///About a year’s salary///Company or personal policies.
Lump-sum handouts: None///One-time year’s salary for officers killed on dangerous missions///Average $1.65 million award to spouse or next of kin from the federal 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, based on age, salary and number of dependents.
Effect of surviving spouse’s remarriage: Benefits end///Benefits end///No change