Is your vRED up to date?

  • Published
  • 82nd Force Support Squadron
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The Virtual Record of Emergency Data, or Department of Defense form 93, is probably the most important document in a military record.

The vRed provides information on a member's primary next-of-kin, secondary NOK and other persons to notify in case of death, injury or emergency.

Very often, notification of NOK is delayed because of outdated, or missing, information on the vRed. This is the official document required by law for designating beneficiaries for death gratuity payment unpaid pay and allowances and the person authorized direct disposition of your remains.

The death gratuity payment is a tax-free $100,000 benefit paid by electronic funds within five to 10 days of a member's death. This is money a NOK would use for emergency expenses until other benefits start being paid. If a minor is designated to receive this benefit, payment will be delayed until the child's guardian obtains a court-appointed guardianship of the child's estate. It takes months and thousands of dollars to obtain this document through the civilian courts. Only the Defense Finance and Accounting Service can make payment on the child's behalf. A member can designate up to ten people to receive this benefit in $10,000 increments.

Unpaid pay and allowances is pay due since the last payday to the date of death. This includes the following: payment for up to 60 days of accrued leave; basic allowance for housing for up to 365 days, if the servicemember was married and had dependents; amounts due for travel; per diem expenses; transportation of eligible family members; shipment of household goods and unpaid installment of a variable reenlistment bonus or any portion of the aviation continuation pay not paid. Payments of bonuses or aviation continuation pay depend on a line of duty determination.

The person authorized direct disposition of a member's remains is an extremely important designation. Servicemembers are limited as to whom they can select. Only a spouse or a blood relative over the age of 18 may be chosen. This person decides where you are buried. If you are newly married, do you want your new spouse to make that decision or do you want a parent to make that decision? Either choice, be sure to discuss this crucial decision with loved ones.

Something to think about:

Would you take a half a million dollars in civilian life insurance, pay the monthly premiums and not name a beneficiary? Leave the laws of the State of Texas to decide who gets the money? Or leave your former spouse listed as the beneficiary after you remarried? That is exactly what you are doing when you fail to update your vRed and Servicemember's Group Life Insurance form!