Veterans Group Life Insurance (VGLI)

Veterans' Group Life Insurance (VGLI) is a post-separation life insurance program that allows Soldiers to convert their Servicemember's Group Life Insurance (SGLI) coverage to renewable term insurance. Members with SGLI coverage are eligible for VGLI upon release from service. It is one of a number of low cost insurance programs developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide insurance benefits for Soldiers and Veterans who may not otherwise be eligible to receive insurance benefits from private companies due to risks involved in military service, or a service connected disability. Effective April 11, 2011, Soldiers who are insured under VGLI who have less than $400,000 in coverage can purchase up to $25,000 of additional coverage on each five year anniversary of their coverage, up to the maximum $400,000. There is no medical underwriting required for the additional coverage.

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Reunion

The return home from combat can often leave servicemembers feeling out of place with the most important people in their lives - their families.

"In deployment, Soldiers grow accustomed to a new lifestyle and a new 'family' - those buddies that bond together to defend each other," said Maj. Ken Williams, 14th Military Police Brigade chaplain. "This lifestyle change is prolonged and becomes familiar, i.e., the new normal."

The families also change while the Soldier is deployed.

"The family is a system," Williams said. "When one family member is absent, the whole system changes. All members of the family adapt to a new 'normal' way of life."

When the servicemember returns, the family may feel uncomfortable with each other, and the servicemember may withdraw from the family.