Blake Hall
United States Navy and Iraq War veteran Jeremy Walsh was living a happy life one day recently, enjoying his military retirement after 20 years served with his loving wife at their home in Parkton, North Carolina when he received a letter in the mail that contained some awfully startling news.
He was dead.
At least, that’s what the Defense Finance and Accounting Service was saying. Because that’s who wrote and sent the letter.
More specifically, they were asking for more than $1,600 in VA benefits “improperly paid out after her husband’s death”.
“They’re sorry to hear that my husband has passed away, and I needed to send back their money for March and April,” Jeremy’s wife Shay Walsh said, summarizing the letter.
“As a sailor or any retired military, we don’t have that kind of money sitting around,” an alive-and-well Jeremy Walsh said Monday.
Naturally, he then went about the process of rectifying the situation, and telling the appropriate sources that he was breathing, rather than buried.
That’s when the story got even stranger.
This from WRAL:
He quickly got on the phone with a DFAS office in Kentucky and tried to work things out.
“Hey, I’m alive,” he said he told the agency.
“We need notarization,” was the response.
Jeremy Walsh got a notarized letter stating that he’s alive, but not before two bank accounts were frozen, putting his family’s finances in turmoil.
“I had to go into Navy Federal (Credit Union), which I’ve had for 20 years and I love, and say, ‘Hey, I’m alive,'” he said.
Again, the response was, “We need notarization.”
“Really?” he said incredulously on Monday. “What better proof do you need if I’m standing 3 feet from you?”
The VA didn’t immediately respond to a request from WRAL News for comment.
Jeremy Walsh said he wants to let other veterans know that something similar could happen to them. In fact, he said, it’s happened recently to at least two other veterans in North Carolina.
“What mechanisms are in place to keep this from happening again?” he asked.
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