Early Troops Finally Achieve Veteran Status

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Unfortunately most of them are dead from old age...

"Almost 400 people, most of them elderly Native Alaskans, can now be officially recognized as military veterans for their service in the Alaska Territorial Guard, a former colonel in the Alaska National Guard said Tuesday.

The 6,600 Alaskans who served in the Territorial Guard during World War II had the historical misfortune of serving their country before Alaska became a state, said former Col. Bob Goodman, a 73-year-old Anchorage resident who put in more than 39 years in the National Guard.

Therefore, Goodman said, Territorial Guardsmen were judged ineligible for a formal military discharge, and that kept them from the range of benefits available to vets."



http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/5691083p-5624002c.html

[cleofus1]

1. native people

Native Alaskans as young as 11 years old signed up to serve in the Territorial Guard.