My oldest son was Army from 98 to 05, and my second son was USMC from 99 to 03. They didn't ever talk about what was the basic benefit, they both bought upgraded benefits through their associations. I'm thinking 400K , with their siblings as beneficiaries, until they married.

As a civilian my employer's benefit for survivors was 5K (50K if we died at work), so we bought our own insurance just like our fathers did.

Ivan