I don't know whether the following is true. It wouldn't surprise me but I reserve judgement. This goes along with the current debate to raise the death benefits for soldiers' families if the soldier dies overseas. That benefit is $12,500.00 at the moment. This seems like such a small amount for someone who dies in the line of duty. This is from Nickle-and-Diming the Troops:

Maybe you better sit down and pop a Xanax before reading any further, because what I'm about to tell you should seriously short you out: not only is the average soldier's salary barely life-sustaining, the combat pay of the average grunt in Afghanistan and Iraq is only $7.50 a day or a measly $225 a month. And to make matters worse, the folks bringing up the rear – hundreds of miles from the horror show – are pulling down the same combat pay as our heroes who daily lay their lives on the line.

America was far more generous to her soldiers during World War II, when combat pay on the battle fields of Europe and Asia was 30 cents a day or about ten bucks a month. Taking the rate of inflation into account, our draftee Army that whacked the Japanese and Germans received three times the hazardous duty pay we're currently paying our professional Army.