White House: No pensions for World War II vets

From WorldNetDaily

Amazing sacrifice of unpaid Alaskan heroes not counted as federal military service Posted: October 01, 2009 ~ 1:25 am Eastern By Chelsea Schilling © 2009 WorldNetDaily 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." However, Alaska did not become a state until Jan. 3, 1959, and was an organized territory at that time. 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.'" [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE]