Neither the Defense Department nor the Veterans' Administration provide financial benefits to active duty surviving spouses based on the "killed in action" designation, and for good reason; everyone in the armed forces has a deep understanding of and appreciation for the random nature of such deaths. Service members, having given up agency over their own lives upon enlistment in exchange for a free education and a steady paycheck, essentially become military assets to be deployed and positioned whenever and wherever the leadership deems necessary. Their voluntary service alone is what allows us civilians the luxury of avoiding a draft requirement. Whether a green recruit's training parachute fails to open, or a combat mess tent pot scrubber dies by missile strike, or a multi-combat-tour sniper successfully returns stateside only to die in a line-of-duty accident, all honorably fulfilled their obligation to do the dirty and dangerous work of American defense on our behalf. These examples prove that chance determines not only service members' deployment to combat zones, but also their survival in combat. Although required to categorize and account for all active duty deaths, and although KIA deaths are tragic and newsworthy, the DoD (and the VA) should not and do not reward death by only one of a thousand ways to die in military service, and neither should the Virginia Constitution. DoD/VA surviving spouse benefits are appropriately determined by whether or not the active duty member's death was in the line of duty. This is the appropriate criterion, if there is to be one, for the Virginia Constitution as well, in offering limited tax relief to unremarried surviving spouses of active duty service members.

Neither the Defense Department nor the Veterans' Administration provide financial benefits to active duty surviving spouses based on the "killed in action" designation, and for good reason; everyone in the armed forces has a deep understanding of and appreciation for the random nature of such deaths. Service members, having given up agency over their own lives upon enlistment in exchange for a free education and a steady paycheck, essentially become military assets to be deployed and positioned whenever and wherever the leadership deems necessary. Their voluntary service alone is what allows us civilians the luxury of avoiding a draft requirement. Whether a green recruit's training parachute fails to open, or a combat mess tent pot scrubber dies by missile strike, or a multi-combat-tour sniper successfully returns stateside only to die in a line-of-duty accident, all honorably fulfilled their obligation to do the dirty and dangerous work of American defense on our behalf. These examples prove that chance determines not only service members' deployment to combat zones, but also their survival in combat. Although required to categorize and account for all active duty deaths, and although KIA deaths are tragic and newsworthy, the DoD (and the VA) should not and do not reward death by only one of a thousand ways to die in military service, and neither should the Virginia Constitution. DoD/VA surviving spouse benefits are appropriately determined by whether or not the active duty member's death was in the line of duty. This is the appropriate criterion, if there is to be one, for the Virginia Constitution as well, in offering limited tax relief to unremarried surviving spouses of active duty service members.