Over at Reddit, a servicemember posted about how he and a buddy each bequeathed one another $2,000 in their wills.
Sounds standard. Except, this two grand is bequeathed so that his friend — pardon the legalese — "can throw a killer party to celebrate my life."
Yes, he got his lawyer to write in "killer party" into his will.
It gets even better. The servicemember — reddit username Citisol — "would like a cardboard cutout of me on display holding a bottle of Maker's Mark Whisky [sic]."
Genius. Absolute genius.
Here's the picture of the will that Citisol included.
His wife? Perfectly alright with it. "She was sitting with me as the lawyer wrote it up. She is sometimes pretty cool."
Citisol made the post to ask for "ridiculous deployment legacies" from other serving redditors' wills. The comments didn't disappoint.
One redditor said that his wife gets his full Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, but with a stipulation. She has sixty days to leave the country, and is not allowed to return for nine months, and she's not allowed to stay in any one country for more than 30 days — in essence, forcing his widow to see the world after losing him.
Another redditor said that they "put my buddy in for 30k if I died so he can buy the car of his dreams."
One user asked "What kind of party you going to throw for 2 grand? Update it and add a zero."
Each member of the U.S. Armed Forces must write out a will prior to deployment. Each servicemember may also purchase into the Servicemember's Group Life Insurance, where a maximum $400,000 policy costs around $27 per month.
In the will, the servicemembers indicate where they want all their worldly possessions to end up, as well as who benefits from the insurance payout.
Dropping two grand to commemorate a life well lived sounds like a great plan. And the cardboard cut out is really a great touch.
Do you have any stories about creative or particularly brilliant clauses in servicemembers' wills? Email either of us, we'd love to hear about it:
Now, check out the Navy's hovercraft >>
Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.