Going Rogue: An American Life (46 page)

Going Rogue

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I loved every part of my job, but the toughest part was meeting with the families of fallen soldiers. As governor, I attended many military funerals-too many. Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell and I made sure one’ or both of us made it to as many military events, services, deployments, and glorious homecomings as we could. We would cancel other scheduled events in order to attend. I attended deployments where I spoke to thousands of soldiers headed to the war zones. I spoke at their homecomings and noted with a heavy heart that there were fewer than we had said goodbye to a year earlier. I spoke at memorials and cried Blue Star ‘moms who had to endure the mournful call oftaps, the twenty-onegun salute, and the final roll call. And I was nearly speechless with grief when I saw those moms change their blue stars for gold ones. As governor, I was commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard and was privileged to visit Alaska troops in Kuwait in 2007, stopping in Germany to visit wounded at the

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. I traveled without staff because the ‘U.S. State Department wanted me to travel with federal officials from the Pentagon instead of local officials. I saw our Alaskans sweltering in conditions that had the mercury soaring 150 ,degrees above the temperatures they’d left in some of their towns and villages. They were half a world away from their families, their beloved mountains and crisp air, rhe alpenglow in the evenings, and their hunting and fishing. Yet I never heard a complaint from any of them. I had a couple of Alaska-style town hall meetings over there and conducted reenlistments in the desert; and when a number of them decided to drive down the road into Iraq to conduct the ceremony, we did.

Instead of complaining about the war or the hardships they

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SARAH

PALIN

faced, what our soldiers wanted ro know was,how were the king salmon runs? And since it was almost moose season back home, they asked me, was there any way I could finagle our Fish and Game Department into extending their hunting petmits until they returned? I promised I would do that.

Two summers later I would head overseas again to visit out Guard in Kosovo and spend anothet day visiting the wounded at Landsruhl. Amidst the peace-keeping mission we were undertaking in Kosovo, I was impressed with the troops’ hospitality as they served me smoked salmon and a big Alaska flag cake that we shared under an Alaska Aces hockey jersey. Pictures of home decorated the entite base, the Big Dipper proudly displayed everywhete I looked. The spirit of the medical team at Landstuhl will change your life if you experience it. This talented medical staff, who could have been anywhere, chose ro be there, tending our wounded warriors. USO volunteers are there too, selflessly giving their time and energy ro lift the spirits of our soldiers. During my visit, I met two soldiers whose legs had been blown off just a couple of days earlier. One had just been given the news by doctors the day before. And yet when I had the privilege of shaking his he only wanted ro ask about his fellow soldiers down the hallway who had also taken the lED blast.

Another young soldier, who reminded me of my son, was COITcerned that the surgeon would mess up the newly inked tattoos on his upper arms; “Watch my artwork, Doc!” he told Landstuhl’s staff before he was wheeled in to surgery. One soldier there was on life support; doctors were helping him hang on until his family could arrive from the United States so they’ could say goodbye. I loved those men and women in uniform and all those who were supporting them with the mission. The troops were sacrificing so much. I obviously saw my own son in their eyes, bur in •

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