By RACHEL D’ORO
Associated Press Writer

(01/28/09 12:35:48)

The Secretary of the Army has authorized emergency funds for 26 surviving members of a World War II Alaska militia unit whose retirement pay was being reduced because of a legal technicality, Alaska’s congressional delegation said today.

Army officials last week said a military analysis determined the law recognizing the Alaska Territorial Guard’s service as federal active duty had initially been misinterpreted. Under the new interpretation, service in the five-year-guard no longer counts in calculating the military’s 20-year minimum for retirement pay.

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“These emergency payments will give us some time to get the problem resolved while making sure these brave Alaskans get the retirement pay they so deserve,” said Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.

Army Secretary Pete Geren will dip into an emergency fund to cover the pay for the 26 former members of the largely Native guard, according to the delegation. The one-time emergency payment will equal two months’ pay while Congress works on legislation to fix the law to allow the service in the unit to counts as active duty for calculating retirement pay.

“In this era of high fuel and food costs, it would be tragic to reduce the retirement checks of these elders who have done so much for our nation,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

An estimated 300 members are still living from the original 6,600-member unit formed in 1942 to protect the vast territory from the threat of Japanese attack years before Alaska became a state. The unit stepped in after the Alaska National Guard was called overseas.

The territorial guards — nicknamed Uncle Sam’s Men and Eskimo Scouts — received no pay or benefits for the job. Many replaced their time hunting and fishing for their food with frequent drills and duties that varied from scouting patrols and construction of military airstrips to hundreds of miles of trailbreaking.

The unit was disbanded with little fanfare in 1947, nearly two years after the war ended.

The state has long recognized the contribution of the Territorial Guard, but federal recognition was slow in coming.

Congress finally passed a law in 2000 qualifying time served in the guard as active federal service. The Army agreed in 2004 to grant official military discharge certificates to members or their survivors. But it but held off on issuing most of the retirement pay until last June.

Copyright © Wed Jan 28 2009 16:39:54 GMT-0900 (AKST)1900 The Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com)