Department of Justice "Supporting" dead police and fire fighters!

A recent article spoke of a law designed to give fire fighters and police "federal death benefits" if they died of heart attacks or stroks in the line of duty. There was a clause in the law about "strenuous activity". It seems our Precious Department of (iin)Justice (DOJ) is going out of their way to find ways to deny these claims.

I copied part of the article and present it here in the spirit of fair usage (also, I couldn't find the article after I copied this portion...)

In Kansas, 44-year-old volunteer firefighter Cordell "Cory" French died of a heart attack on Aug. 28, 2004, in the small town of Towanda, east of Wichita. His wife, Kelly, said he had been carrying hoses during a training exercise in the high school parking lot that morning, then collapsed at home that afternoon. She said the Justice Department told her last week that her claim was denied, because his work was "non-strenuous activity."

Here is a draft of a letter I wrote the DOJ spokesman:

21 March 2007

Sandra Gunn
c/o Justice Department
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Ms. Gunn,

An internet article called "Safety officers denied on-duty death benefits" discussed how a Kansas firefighter (Cordell "Cory" French) died of a heart attack after carrying fire hoses ("hose drills") one morning. The DOJ adjudicators said "his work was 'non-strenuous activity'" when they rejected his widow's claim.

I found "hose drills" to be strenuous when I was a 19 year old Navy Recruit in November 1970. I am curious if those people who turned down Mrs. French's claim would still feel the same about "hose drills" if they spent an hour or two actually doing "hose drills"?

I strongly recommend you have these "decision makers" do those "hose drills" for an hour or two. How can you judge if an activity is "non-strenuous" if you don't have personal experience of that activity?

Sincerely,

me name

I left the following out for the simple reason I din't want to give the DOJ overt reason to fart off me request; they will anyway...

I realize it is a waste of time to challenge those adjudicators to partake in a "hose drill" as they will probably regard it as illrevelant and probably aren't in good enough shape for the drill.