Things seem to be all heading in the right direction for resolution. Even the Defense Finance & Accounting Service said today that I should get my February retired pay on time at the end of February, and my back pay for January is (allegedly) being processed. Of course, I'll believe it when the funds are deposited into my bank account.
Important takeaway: When this error happens to the next victim, the victim needs to be proactive in contacting their financial institutions about the error, as I was. But don't just speak to anyone in customer service. Ask to speak with their Survivor Support department (or whatever they call it) if they have one. In some institutions, only the Survivor Support folks have the ability to enter notes into their systems and stop them from carrying on with this type of error.
Two of my financial institutions - USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union - continued to act on the erroneous death report even after I spoke to customer service two or three times about the situation. It took the Survivor Support folks to finally fix the problem (assuming it is actually fixed at this time). Of course, nobody could tell me why I was not directed to Survivor Support in the first place.
I'll be ready to get my Congresscritter involved if this continues beyond mid-March.