NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps)
Casualty assistance and survivor benefits for NOAA Corps officers
The NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps is one of the nation's eight uniformed services, with approximately 360 officers who operate NOAA's fleet of research and survey ships and specialized environmental data-collecting aircraft. Officers are part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and 10 U.S.C. 101(a)(5)(B) names the commissioned corps of NOAA as a uniformed service. Armed-forces retirement, annuity, and death-benefit law reaches NOAA Corps officers through 33 U.S.C. 3071, and their active service counts as active military service for laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs under 33 U.S.C. 3072(a)(1). When an active duty, reserve, or retired NOAA Corps officer dies, families work with the NOAA Corps Commissioned Personnel Center (CPC) for casualty assistance and benefit claims.
Notifying the NOAA Corps when someone dies
A family member reports the death. NOAA Corps's page on what to do after a death →
Next of kin and executors
- •Active duty death: the commanding officer reports it, and CPC appoints a Casualty Assistance Calls Officer to help with burial and claims.
- •Retired officer: the family reports it as quickly as possible, which prevents an overpayment of retired pay.
- •Write to USCG Pay and Personnel Center, 444 SE Quincy Street, Topeka KS 66683-3591.
- •Submit the survivors' claim for retired pay and other unpaid money due through the date of death, and ask about the SBP annuity.
Survivors and beneficiaries
- •VA Form 21P-534EZ: Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, Survivors Pension or accrued benefits
- •VA Form 21P-530EZ: burial allowance
- •Interment in a VA national cemetery, a headstone or grave marker, a burial flag, and military funeral honors
Required Documents
- Certified copies of the death certificate: Nearly every benefit claim needs one.
- The officer's DD Form 214 or a statement of service: NOAA Corps Directives 11302 requires one or the other for active-duty personnel.
- The officer's most recent retiree account statement: for retired officers
- Marriage certificate: for surviving spouse claims
- Birth certificates for dependent children
- Letters testamentary or court appointment of personal representative: if not the surviving spouse
- SBP election and beneficiary designations: On file with CPC and the USCG Pay & Personnel Center.
- SGLI beneficiary designation of record: Maintained in the SGLI Online Enrollment System.
Timeline
The death gratuity is paid immediately on official notification of the death, so the casualty report is what starts it.
What NOAA Corps pays or provides to survivors7
- Death Gratuity
Death gratuity
A one-time payment to the survivors of a NOAA Corps officer who dies on active duty, in authorized travel to or from active duty, or within 120 days of release from active duty from a service-connected cause. The Director, CPC has it paid from appropriations available for payment to NOAA Corps officers.1, 2, 3
Who qualifies: An officer may designate one or more persons to receive all or part of the gratuity in 10 percent increments; any balance follows the order of precedence: surviving spouse, then children, then designated parents or siblings, then parents, then siblings.
Amount: $100,000, set by 10 U.S.C. 1478(a)
How to apply: Report the death to the Officer Personnel Management Division of the NOAA Corps Commissioned Personnel Center; CPC initiates the gratuity as part of casualty assistance.
- Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI)
Life insurance proceeds
SGLI covers NOAA Corps officers under its own statute, which counts full-time duty as a commissioned officer of NOAA as active duty. Coverage is automatic at the maximum unless the member elects in writing to decline it or to take a lower amount.4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Who qualifies: Designated SGLI beneficiaries of a covered NOAA Corps officer
Amount: $500,000 maximum, reducible in $50,000 increments; payable as a lump sum or in thirty-six equal monthly installments
How to apply: File SGLV 8283 (Claim for Death Benefits) with the Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (OSGLI). Form SGLV 8283.
- Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) Annuity
Monthly survivor benefit or annuity
A monthly annuity for the surviving spouse, former spouse or eligible children of a NOAA Corps officer who was enrolled in SBP. The USCG Pay and Personnel Center in Topeka, Kansas, not DFAS, pays the annuity and deducts SBP coverage costs from retired pay.9, 10, 11, 12
Who qualifies: Surviving spouse, former spouse or dependent children covered by the officer's SBP election. A spouse annuity ends if the survivor remarries before reaching age 55, and resumes if that later marriage ends by death, annulment or divorce.
Amount: 55 percent of the officer's elected SBP base amount, paid monthly
How to apply: Report the death to the NOAA Corps Commissioned Personnel Center, and direct retired-pay and annuity questions to the USCG Pay and Personnel Center.
- Unpaid Retired Pay and Allowances
Amounts due the person at death
When a NOAA Corps officer dies in a retired status, the surviving spouse or the survivors determined under 10 U.S.C. 2771 are entitled to any retirement pay or other unpaid money due the officer up to and including the date of death, and must submit a claim for it.1, 13, 9
Who qualifies: Survivors in the order of precedence set by 10 U.S.C. 2771
How to apply: Claim through the NOAA Corps Commissioned Personnel Center; settlement is made through the USCG Pay & Personnel Center, which holds the retired-pay account.
- TRICARE Survivor Coverage
Health coverage for survivors
TRICARE keeps covering family members when a sponsor dies, and spouses can keep coverage until they remarry. The plan options and costs depend on whether the sponsor was on active duty, in the National Guard or Reserve, or retired at the time of death.14, 15
Who qualifies: Surviving spouse and eligible dependent children of a NOAA Corps sponsor enrolled in DEERS; TRICARE's definition of "uniformed services" includes the Commissioned Corps of NOAA.
How to apply: No DEERS death report is required; DMDC receives it from the services and Social Security. Survivors must report the death to Express Scripts, and may notify DMDC directly through an ID card office, by fax or by mail.
- Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC)
Monthly survivor benefit or annuity
Survivors may claim Dependency and Indemnity Compensation from VA where the death was service-connected. Active service of NOAA Corps officers is deemed active military service for all rights and benefits under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.16, 1, 17
Who qualifies: A service-connected death, or, in limited cases, a totally disabled veteran's non-service-connected death.
How to apply: Apply at va.gov or call the VA benefits hotline. Form VA 21P-534EZ.
- VA Burial and Memorial Benefits
Burial, funeral and memorial benefits
A VA burial allowance, a headstone or grave marker, a burial flag, interment in a VA national cemetery, and military funeral honors (10 U.S.C. 1491). NOAA Corps Directives 11203 covers interment.18, 16, 19, 1, 20
Who qualifies: For national-cemetery burial, a NOAA commissioned officer who served full-time on or after July 29, 1945; served before then in an area of immediate military hazard; or served in the Philippine Islands on December 7, 1941 and continued there until death.
How to apply: Apply at va.gov or call the VA benefits hotline. Form VA 21P-530EZ.
What happens to each matter1
- Pension or annuity
NOAA Corps retired pay and annuities are not administered by DFAS. The NOAA Corps Payroll Unit sits at the USCG Pay and Personnel Center in Topeka, Kansas, under a service agreement first established in 1985, and that center makes and records all pay to retired officers and annuitants.10
What NOAA Corps's rules say5
- Who reports the death
When an officer dies on active duty, the aircraft commander, commanding officer or immediate civilian supervisor reports the casualty to the next higher command and to the NOAA Corps Commissioned Personnel Center.1
When a retired officer dies, the family notifies the Director, CPC by the most expeditious means possible, with the same information. Survivors also notify VA and Social Security separately.1
- Payments received after the death
Notify CPC as soon as possible. Reporting a retiree's death promptly prevents an overpayment of retired pay that would later be recouped.21
- Help with filing and representation
CPC forwards the forms the next of kin need to apply for benefits and advises claimants of what is available.1
- Processing and payment
SGLI is settled by OSGLI, the SBP annuity and final retired-pay settlement by the USCG Pay and Personnel Center, and DIC and burial claims by VA, each on that agency's own schedule.21
- What the agency does and does not handle
The NOAA Corps is one of the nation's eight uniformed services. 10 U.S.C. 101(a)(5)(B) names the commissioned corps of NOAA as a uniformed service alongside the armed forces and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.22, 23
Armed-forces retirement, annuity and death-benefit law reaches the Corps through 33 U.S.C. 3071, and VA law through 33 U.S.C. 3072(a)(1).9, 16
The death-benefit subchapter of title 10 applies to the NOAA Corps through 33 U.S.C. 3071(a)(21), and the authority title 10 vests in the Secretary of Defense is exercised for the Corps by the Secretary of Commerce or a designee.9
The NOAA Corps Directives list the death gratuity, unpaid pay and the SBP annuity as NOAA-administered benefits.1
The Commissioned Personnel Center's Officer Personnel Management Division handles pay, benefits, separations and official records.21
The NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) houses the NOAA Corps and the Commissioned Personnel Center.24
Forms NOAA Corps issues3
- SGLV 8283: Claim for Death Benefits (SGLI/VGLI)
Beneficiary claim for SGLI life insurance proceeds after the death of a covered NOAA Corps officer.25
Completed by the SGLI beneficiary.
- VA 21P-534EZ: Application for DIC, Survivors Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits
Surviving spouse, child or parent application for VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.17
Completed by the surviving spouse, child or parent.
- VA 21P-530EZ: Application for Burial Benefits
Survivor or executor claim for the VA burial allowance and plot or interment allowance.20
Completed by a survivor or the executor.
Other agencies and offices involved6
- USCG Pay and Personnel Center
Retired pay, annuities and SBP coverage costs for NOAA Corps retirees and annuitants10
Mailing address: USCG Pay and Personnel Center, 444 SE Quincy Street, Topeka, KS 66683-3591
- Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (OSGLI)
SGLI death claims, for the Department of Veterans Affairs26, 4
Phone: 1-800-419-1473
Email: osgli.claims@prudential.com
- Department of Veterans Affairs
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, burial benefits and national cemetery interment27, 1
Phone: 1-800-827-1000
- Social Security Administration
Stopping Social Security benefits and Social Security survivor benefits1
Phone: 1-800-772-1213
- DMDC
DEERS records: it receives the death from the services and Social Security14
Phone: 1-800-538-9552
Fax: 1-800-336-4416
- Express Scripts
The death report survivors must make to it14
Programs for survivors1
- Casualty Assistance Calls Officer (CACO)
On notification of an active duty officer's death, the Director, CPC appoints a CACO for up to six months. The CACO makes sure suitable burial arrangements are made, the dependents receive all their entitlements and the directives' administrative requirements are met; CPC bears the expense.1
Who qualifies: The family of an officer who dies on active duty
Not in NOAA Corps's published guidance3
- Processing times for claims other than the death gratuity
- A NOAA Corps directive section on the Survivor Benefit Plan
- A death-reporting page on the OMAO site
Sources27
- 1.NOAA Corps Directives, Chapter 11: Casualties and Decedent Affairs, 4/26/2004
- 2.10 U.S.C. 1477
- 3.10 U.S.C. 1478
- 4.VA: Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI)
- 5.38 U.S.C. 1965
- 6.38 U.S.C. 1967
- 7.38 U.S.C. 1970
- 8.NOAA Corps eligibility and benefits
- 9.33 U.S.C. 3071
- 10.NOAA Corps Directives, Chapter 2, July 2025
- 11.10 U.S.C. 1450
- 12.10 U.S.C. 1451
- 13.10 U.S.C. 2771
- 14.TRICARE: Survivors
- 15.10 U.S.C. 1072
- 16.33 U.S.C. 3072
- 17.VA Form 21P-534EZ, Application for DIC, Survivors Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits
- 18.VA: Eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery
- 19.10 U.S.C. 1491
- 20.VA Form 21P-530EZ, Application for Burial Benefits
- 21.Commissioned Personnel Center contacts
- 22.About the NOAA Corps
- 23.10 U.S.C. 101
- 24.Contact the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations
- 25.SGLV 8283, Claim for Death Benefits (SGLI/VGLI)
- 26.VA Life Insurance: contact
- 27.VA: Helpful VA phone numbers
Sources
Data sourced from NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps primary sources (26 pages reviewed). How we research.
NOAA Corps death reporting
Officer Personnel Management Division (NOAA Corps Commissioned Personnel Center)
Mailing address
Website
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