Army Sgt. Maj. Keith Witt had been a soldier 29 years when illness led him to retire in 1993. The Department of Veterans Affairs rated him fully disabled with multiple sclerosis and later with cancer presumed to have been caused by exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Witt had signed up for the military Survivor Benefit Plan for his wife, Kay. His retirement pay was reduced by 6.5 percent a month for SBP premiums.

By 1997, Keith's condition had worsened to a point that Kay retired early from her federal civilian career to be his full-time caregiver. She estimates the decision reduced her pension by about half.

When Keith died in 2001, Kay became eligible for an SBP annuity equal to 55 percent of his retirement pay. Because Keith had died of service-connected illnesses, she also was eligible for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Here, however, is the catch. To accept DIC, which pays a basic benefit of $1,067 a month, the law requires an equal cut in SBP. Premiums paid on the portion of SBP that disappears are returned to the widow.

This so-called SBP-DIC offset impacts 59,000 military survivors and simply isn't fair, Witt and other widows told the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission last week. The two payments have distinct purposes, they said.

DIC, which is tax-free, compensates for a service-connected death and the resulting economic loss. SBP is like life insurance. Kay qualified for SBP only because her husband bought it for her with monthly premiums.

"It would be illegal if a civilian company did that — refunded your premiums, without interest, and said, 'You know, we've changed our minds. We don't want to pay this,' " she told me.

The benefits commission is examining all facets of the veterans' disability system. A final report is due in October.

Edith G. Smith spoke at a commission meeting on behalf of Gold Star Wives of America, which represents survivors of service members who die on active duty or from service-connected disabilities in retirement.

Smith, widow of a retired Marine officer who died in 1998 after many years disabled by a heart ailment, said Gold Star Wives strongly supports an option before the commission to eliminate the offset for all recipients.

"To change nothing is unconscionable," Smith said. "And to eliminate the SBP-DIC offset for all survivors where the disabled retiree paid SBP premiums but not for survivors of in-service deaths, because no SBP premiums were paid, is not a fair and equitable solution."

Both Witt and Smith said they were impressed by sympathetic comments and questions from commissioners.

"The commissioners understand that ... (SBP) is not a gift from the government," Smith said. "It's a purchased benefit. If they didn't purchase it with money, they purchased it with their lives."