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thedrifter
03-05-09, 06:52 AM
Survivors fight continues

By JIMMY WILLIAMS
Published: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 10:17 AM EST
Tideland News Writer

Vivianne Wersel said that several points in President Barack Obama’s 30-minute speech at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune last week hit the mark.

Still, she left Goettge Memorial Field house Friday afternoon wanting more. As a surviving spouse, she was hoping to hear something that speaks to the needs of those who have lost a husband or wife to war.

“There is a price to war,” she said as the Marines began to file out of the gym. “The spouse left behind” pays much of that bill.

In many ways, the surviving spouses are the “forgotten casualties.” For example, Wersel was hurt that more Marine Corps widows were not extended an invitation to the President’s speech at Camp Lejeune. That lack of recognition is what is driving her these days.

It’s not a new thing for the Emerald Isle woman to have focus. She led a courageous battle for survivors after her husband, Lt. Col. Rich Wersel, died in 2005 within days of returning from a tour in Iraq. Because he died at Camp Lejeune and not in Iraq, there was a huge disparity in his benefits.

She was instrumental in changing the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance and Death Gratuity so that all wartime survivors are eligible for enhanced benefits.

Even though that battle is won, she believes other problems must be addressed.

“Her mission is to help correct the inequities of widows’ benefits and to champion for the improvement of services to assist in their optimal well-being,” states the biography that was presented to the U.S. Congress in 2006.

She hopes that with the new administration in Washington, she will be able to gain more recognition at Headquarters Marine Corps.

“I was very impressed and pleased with the announcement to raise military pay,” Wersel said. “The military has always been underpaid.”

And, with Michelle Obama’s commitment to assist military families, Wersel believes there are more improvements to come in the lives of the military and their families.

“She is definitely a supporter,” Wersel said.

Wersel will work to see that improvements are extended to the spouses left behind.

“Sometimes, people forget about the survivors,” she said. “We need more recognition from the Marine Corps.

“We still want to be part of the Marine Corps family.”

Much of that could be accomplished through better communication, she believes.

“We are still not connecting to the recently widowed in a timely fashion,” Wersel said.

Not only would fellow survivors be able to provide them with information on benefits that are available, they can offer peer support.

“We do live on,” Wersel said. “There are survivors.”

Wersel said the surviving spouses are working through the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. So far, only two USMC bases, Lejeune and Camp Pendleton on the West Coast, have official surviving spouse support groups. That is something Wersel will work to change.

“We are forgotten,” she said. “But we’ll keep plugging away.”

Ellie