[Vision2020] Army cuts benefits to surviors of Alaska WWII militia

[Love America]

  Tom,

Another travesty for American veterans of World War II.....

Chris

>From today's Anchorage Daily News:

Army cuts off pay for Alaska WWII militia

By RACHEL D'ORO
The Associated Press

Published: January 22nd, 2009 02:09 PM
Last Modified: January 22nd, 2009 04:04 PM

The Army is terminating retirement credit for time served in a largely
Native militia formed to guard the territory of Alaska from Japanese attack
during World War II.

The change means 26 surviving members of the Alaska Territorial Guard --
most in their 80s and long retired -- will lose as much as $557 in monthly
retirement pay, a state veterans officer said today. The pay claims of 37
others have been suspended.

"This is earned income and it's not being paid," said Jerry Beale of the
state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

Gov. Sarah Palin said the state is pursuing a remedy for "these brave
Alaskans, who did so much for the cause of freedom during a time of great
national peril." The action comes almost a decade after Congress passed a
law qualifying time served in the unpaid guard as active federal service.
The Army agreed in 2004 to grant official military discharge certificates to
members or their survivors.

"It took nearly 60 years before the federal government honored these
defenders of our territory for their service," Palin said in a statement.
"While most died waiting for this recognition, the few who survive are now
being told their Territorial Guard service is not worthy of federal
recognition. This is unacceptable. These people are no less heroic than the
militias at Lexington and Concord, or the defenders of the Alamo."

An Army official said the law was initially misinterpreted.

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  The reversal follows an analysis by the Department of Defense that
determined that the Army is not authorized in the law to count Territorial
Guard service for the purpose of calculating retirement pay, said Lt. Col.
Richard McNorton of the Army's human resources command in Alexandria, Va.

"The focus is to follow the law," he said. "We can't choose whether to
follow the law. We have to follow the law."

The Army doesn't intend to seek to recoup past pay, he said.

An estimated 300 members are still living from the original 6,600-member
unit called up from 1942 to 1947 to conduct various functions including
scouting patrols and construction of military airstrips. But only a fraction
had enough other military service to reach the 20-year requirement for
retirement pay.

Among those who did is 88-year-old Paul Kiunya in the Western Alaska village
of Kipnuk. Kiunya was 16 when he joined the Territorial Guard. He worked in
communications, reporting by radio any unusual noises or the direction of
aircraft, including some Japanese planes he spotted.

"We did not get one cent being in the Territorial Guard," he said. "And we
worked hard."

Kiunya -- who later put in 22 years in the National Guard and another decade
in the Guard Reserves -- will lose more than $358 in his retirement package
because of the Army's decision. With gasoline in his village at almost $10 a
gallon, that's a huge amount.

"I don't know why they trying to cut the pay. It's not good for us right
now," he said in a phone interview. "It's not right."
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