Obama administration wrong in effort to deny pensions to 26 members of the Alaska Territorial Guard (a brief exit from cocoon mode)

I was sitting here just now, at my computer, struggling with my project, when I heard a story on APRN's Alaska Statewide News that struck me as almost unbelievable.

The Obama Administration wants to deny pensions now included in a military spending bill for 26 surviving members of the Alaska Territorial Guard. You can find the story here in the Anchorage Daily News.

During World War II, Alaska was the only place in the United States that was not only bombed by Japan but where the enemy actually captured US soil and held it, at a terrible cost in life to both sides. To help protect Alaska, the US Army took on the organization of the Alaska Territorial Guard, comprised mostly of Alaska Natives living in remote parts of the state, particularly along the Southwest and Arctic Coasts.

Their job was to be the eyes and ears of the military in Alaska and they did it well. Of the 6600 who served in the Alaska Territorial Guard, 300 still live. After the war, 26 of these continued to serve in the US military and, if their time in the ATG is included in their military service, they qualify for full pensions.

That's what the bill does - it includes that time and makes these elderly Alaska Natives eligible for their pensions, roughly about $400 a month.

The Obama administration argues that this sets a bad precedent in making people who worked for states eligible for federal benefits.

But the ATG was organized on behalf of the US Army in a time of war that struck and held US soil.

And what will be saved by denying pensions to 26 elderly men who served their country?

Pittance.

I voted for Obama and support him in most things, but this is about as dumb, foolish and cruel a move as his administration could make.

As to the gentleman with the dog in the picture, this is the late ATG veteran John Schaeffer, Sr., Iñupiat, at his cabin out in the country about 21 miles from Kotzebue.

In the late 90's, I did a project on behalf of the Alaska Federation of Natives wherein I photographed and interviewed Native veterans from across the state. Most of these were regular military men and women who had served overseas in conflicts from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the original Gulf War.

I was visiting Kotzebue and wanted to include some ATG members. Several folks said I ought to talk to John Schaeffer, Sr. I tracked him down through his son, John Schaeffer, Jr., the former Adjutant General of the Alaska National Guard. The general warned me in advance that his father was an ornery and crusty old man who did not like to be disturbed by anyone when he was at camp.

Still, he managed to get a radio message out to his father and asked him if I could come and pay him a visit. "No," the elder Schaeffer retorted.

But both Schaeffer's had served in the military to keep America free and I was a free man, able to go wherever the hell I wanted to go - especially in those days, because I had not yet crashed my little bush plane and so the lack of roads was no impediment to me.

So I flew out, found his cabin, put my skis down on the snow covering the frozen surface of Kotzebue Sound's Hotham Inlet and climbed out of the airplane to be greeted by his barking dog.

I was there. John loved airplanes. I had flown in myself. His dog barked but didn't bite. He invited me into his cabin, fed me fish and moose and we talked about airplanes, and his time in the Alaska Territorial Guard.

The ATG was organized by the famed Colonel "Muktuk" Marston, originally of Washington State, who traveled about western and northern Alaska and gained the friendship and trust of the Native people.

Perhaps Marston would not have done quite so well as he did, had it not been for Schaeffer, who took him all over Northwest Alaska by dog team.

"“We used to have a lot of fun," Schaeffer remembered their travels. "I always get a kick out of him, Muktuk Marston. Every time we camp we had a little 8x10 tent, I’d pitch it up.  When he get ready to go to bed, he always take all his clothes off, and walk out the door bare-footed.” He laughed loud at the memory. “I hear him crunching around in the snow, going to toilet.  That guy was pretty tough, boy.  He said he always sleep better when he do that, walk out naked."

Tough as Marston was, he did sometimes find himself in need of Schaeffer's protection, such the time they mushed into a trading post in Kiana to spend the night.

They arrived late, around nine or ten o'clock. Even though she was drunk, the wife of the owner fixed them some food and they sat down to eat it. Her mother was also drunk, upstairs.

“Then all of a sudden, there was a big commotion, they had a stair way up to the second floor.  Something was coming down the stairs: 'Bang! Bang! Bang!'  That other woman, she fell down coming down the stairs, and she just rolled down, 'Klunk! Klunk! Klunk!' down to the floor.  When we got through eating, I told Muktuk, ‘I’m going out to feed the dogs.’

 “‘Don’t leave me, don’t leave me!’ he was just like a kid, he didn’t want to be left behind with them two drunks in the house.

"I took him along. I got a kick out of that."

Maybe he didn't see combat, but Schaeffer did risk his life serving the ATG. In one instance, he paddled a kayak out to an ice flow to hunt seals (the ATG lived off the land and sea). The ice broke between him and the Kayak and he started drifting away. When he discovered what was happening, the gap was growing fast. Holding a rifle in one hand and a large, steel, seal hook in the other, Schaeffer took a run and leaped, fearful that he might not make it across. He did. Just barely. And when he turned around to look, he estimated the gap to be 20 feet wide and widening rapidly. 

"That was the longest jump I ever made in my life, boy! Even my own pulse skipped a beat when I see that water.  It was a long jump, but I made it.  I just barely made it too. That, although I’m a pretty good swimmer I could swim a little ways before I get stiff.  Cold waters, I don’t think I could last very long."

Well, I have again taken a brief break from "Cocoon Mode" and believe me, I cannot afford the time that I have spent doing so.

But I wasn't accomplishing near as much as I would have hoped, anyway, and when I heard the story on the news, it made me angry.

Obama is right on health care. He is wrong in this. I hope that he will soon figure that out.

And any aide stupid and mean enough to come up with such a scheme ought to be fired.