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| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama To Strip Pensions From Alaska WWII Vets To Punish Palin |
| 2009-10-01 |
| The Obama administration has advised Congress to cut off pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard who served the nation without pay during the Japanese attack. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the administration sent a "strongly worded" message to Congress concerning its priorities for a military spending bill, and the service members didn't make the cut. The Army changed its minimum retirement policy in January to no longer include service in the Guard toward the 20-year service requirement. A Senate military spending bill up for a vote in the Senate lets the 26 former Guard members count their service as active military duty so they may receive retirement pay. McClatchy reported that Alaska state lawmakers passed a bill to compensate the veterans until Congress came up with a permanent solution. But the White House said Sept. 25 that's it's not "appropriate to establish a precedent of treating service performed by a state employee as active duty for purposes of the computation of retired pay." Sen. Lisa Murkowski called the Obama administration's statements "deeply disappointing, bordering on insensitive." "The administration's justification, which is that the legislation will set the precedent of treating service as a state employee as federal service, defies logic and history," she said in a statement. "Sixty-two years after the Territorial Guard was disbanded, the Obama administration minimizes the contribution of this gallant unit to America's success in World War II by calling its service 'state service.'" More than 6,600 Alaskans volunteered to serve in the Alaska Territorial Guard, a component of the U.S. Army organized in response to Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. According to the Tundra Drums, the male and female volunteers ranged in age from 11 to 80 years old, and they guarded their assigned territory with no pay and little equipment until the Alaska Territorial Guard was disbanded in 1947. Because Alaska was still a territory and not an official U.S. state, the volunteers' enlistments were not counted as federal military service until 2004. In January, Alaska's then-Gov. Sarah Palin learned the retirement payments to Alaska's Territorial Guard would be cut off, so she wrote a letter to President Obama. "This unfortunate decision was made without any notice to those affected and will cost a group of elderly Alaska veterans a significant portion of their retirement income at a time when the cost of living, particularly in rural Alaska, is substantially higher than in the rest of the United States," she wrote. "Prior to World War II, Alaska's territorial Governor was authorized by Congress to organize a two-branch military response organization – the organized National Guard, and the ATG, which would mobilize to help defend Alaskans in the event of an invasion. An estimated 6,600 men and women, mostly Alaska Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts, responded to that call. Instead of hunting, trapping and fishing, they patrolled rural Alaska and served as the eyes and ears of the Army for more than five years without pay and benefits." Palin said it took nearly 60 years before those men and women would be honored for their service to the country – and most died waiting for that recognition. She said the service of those soldiers is to Alaska what the service of the militia at Lexington and Concord was to New England. "Now they are being told, again, that their ATG service is not worthy of federal recognition, and that is not right," she wrote. "These people are our heroes." Or is Obama doing it because he hates Eskimos and Inuit? |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #12 BOA* does not give a rat's behind about the military. He does not understand the principles of duty and sacrifice. The Territorial Guard people did their duty for next to nothing, when the Japanese were invading the Aleutians and making scouting missions in other places in Alaska. He is willing to spend trillions on his cronies and political hacks, and unwilling to spend a few bucks on 26 loyal Americans that did their part to keep this country safe in its time of peril. *BOA = Barak Obama Administration |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-10-01 22:22 |
| #11 It has, to me, become apparent that "men" more qualified to sell snake oil than place themselves in harms way exhibit mostly contempt towards those who place community defense and continuity over "organizing." |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2009-10-01 19:41 |
| #10 I certainly hope the other 56 states will come to Alaska's aid. |
| Posted by: Matt 2009-10-01 19:39 |
| #9 You mean they actively participated in discriminatory imperialist violence, or the threat of violence, against the oppressed minority Japanese and Germans, DMFD? |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-10-01 19:11 |
| #8 Hey, they're only a bunch of guys who defended their country during war time. Much better to spend five billion on a party in 2016 for his corrupt cronies in Chicago. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-10-01 18:56 |
| #7 I hope they do it and it gets reported. The only rational motive is revenge. Watch Obama's popularity go down. Congress' popularity is already so low it doesn't make any difference. |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2009-10-01 18:51 |
| #6 Alaska wasn't even a state until 1955 or so, or about when Zero was being born on the planet Gonzo-rhea. |
| Posted by: Maggie Ebbuter2991 2009-10-01 18:18 |
| #5 Anchorage Daily News |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2009-10-01 17:53 |
| #4 Anyone got a better link than the dubious WND. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-10-01 16:35 |
| #3 And yet he spends $12 trillion on wine and cheese? Please. The guy is a disaster. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-10-01 14:58 |
| #2 How not to make friends that can fight back and really piss them off - Obama core class 101 |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-10-01 14:29 |
| #1 Why would you expect the One to know that unlike Hawaii, Alaskan territory was invaded and occupied by the Japanese during WWII. He's also out of the loop about his own federal laws, like Title X - 311. Militia: composition and classes (a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard. (b) The classes of the militia are— (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia. If they were doing military duties in the territory during time of war, it wasn't a matter of technicalities. It was performing their citizen duties for the country picking up the job in the absence of other resources. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-10-01 13:57 |