Military officials say the U.S. Navy has begun awarding death benefits electronically after a grieving father of a dead sailor was mistakenly jailed on fraudulent check charges.
Lieutenant Commander William Marks, a spokesman for the Navy's Bureau of Personnel, says the Navy will now use electronic fund transfers to pay the $100,000 death benefit to eligible beneficiaries of sailors killed while in serving their country.
Mark says the move was announced in a service-wide message this month following two incidents earlier this year.
Under the previous format of paper benefit checks, banks 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 for investigation of check fraud and then cleared.
