Veterans Group Links Sarah Palin to Problems in Alaska National Guard

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Veterans Group Links Sarah Palin to Problems in Alaska National Guard

By PA Staff Writers

A preliminary report released earlier this month by Veterans for America (VFA) held Gov. Sarah Palin in no small part responsible for enormous difficulties faced by Alaska National Guard members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the report, "the post-deployment needs of Alaska National Guard members and their families remain largely unmet."

The report described the Alaska National Guard's leadership as having "an inadequate understanding of the full range of post-combat issues facing those who served abroad from the Alaska Guard." The report noted that this short-coming resulted directly from "inadequate leadership" on the part of the Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin.

The preliminary report, based on interviews with military families and veterans of the Guard, indicated that access to Veterans' health care facilities is the most pressing problem Guard members and veterans face. One-fourth of Alaska Guard members live in rural areas that are at least 60 miles from nearest veterans health care centers. Travel expenses from the most isolated areas can reach close to $1,500 for a single hospital visit.

Military families with deployed members lost access to public assistance, such as Medicaid, because of the temporary boost in income the service member in their family saw, the VFA report showed. For the family members of deployed troops, shifting to the VA's Tricare system meant losing access to adequate care, because there are few Tricare providers in rural areas.

Even the families of Guard members living in urban areas were forced to turn to food banks and other sources of public assistance to make ends meet as their family members deployed overseas. The VFA report states that the Food Bank of Alaska in Anchorage saw a growth of 400 percent of military families who rely on it for services.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7561/

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1. I hope those veterans thank other veterans for their right.....

to go ignored and neglected by a piece of shit government that uses them as fodder and backdrop material, but refuses to support their basic needs after their service. this is the worst thing these right wing fucks do in my mind...and I am hoping all of the military families that were so pro-bu$h are finally going to smell the coffee about these bastards. I have a six page list of the pro-veteran bills that McSame voted against in the Senate. Change, Hope, Obama.