POW/MIA Veterans News NH

OFF THE WIRE
State parks tell marine to take a hike
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/271712/state-parks-tell-marine-to-take-hike?CSAuthResp=1312536422%3Acjp784mn4n75m23j9mrqnr3177%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Aapproved%3A77B7E0B4E300DDD9EDA181A85CED3C18&CSUserId=94&CSGroupId=1
Entry free for Guard, not regular military
By Laura Mccrystal / Monitor staff
When he returned home to visit his family in New Hampshire on leave from the Marine Corps last week, Gunnery Sgt. Richard Thayer decided to take his wife and children to the Flume Gorge in Lincoln.
During his visit, he learned he does not qualify for the free admission into state parks offered under state law to members of the New Hampshire National Guard.
Thayer, 32, has been in the Marine Corps for 15 years and was deployed on four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He called the law "a slap in the face."
The New Hampshire law regarding fees for the state park system states that certain members of the New Hampshire National Guard can receive free admission to state parks. Marines like Thayer, as well as other active duty members of Army, Navy and the Air Force, must pay full price.
In order to qualify for free admission into the parks, members of the New Hampshire National Guard Active Guard and Reserve program must be currently serving or have retired within the range of pay grades E1 through E6.
The E1 through E6 designations represent the lowest-ranking enlisted members of the New Hampshire National Guard, said Mary Morin, director of the the New Hampshire State Office of Veterans Affairs.
Morin, who has been director of the State Office of Veterans Affairs for five years, said in an interview this week she was not aware that the law excludes many members of the armed forces. She said the law appeared to have been in place since 1985.
"If that is the case, then certainly I will try to introduce something that would change that," Morin said.
Thayer's mother, Mary Thayer of Salisbury, said she finds the law offensive.
"When you get right down to it, they're not supporting the military, they're supporting the national guard, who is part of the military, but that's not all the military," she said.
Mary Thayer has already begun to speak out against the law. She contacted her state representatives after her family's experience at the Flume Gorge last week.
"At this point, it's really not about the money," she said. "It's about the principle of the thing."
State Rep. Jenn Coffey said she researched the law after receiving a phone call from Mary Thayer.
"(The Thayers) felt like (Richard's) service . . . was less valuable or didn't mean as much," Coffey said. "And I'd hate to think that any New Hampshire citizen was left with that kind of feeling."
Coffey said she was surprised to learn that the law was written to only include certain members of the National Guard. She said the lawmakers who put it into place likely had good intentions, but she disagrees with not offering the same benefits to every member of the armed forces.
"I really don't think that's appropriate," Coffey said. "I think that if we're going to give a military discount . . . it should be for all of our men and women. They all deserve to be recognized."
The filing deadline has already passed for the next session in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, but Coffey said she is still looking for a way to change the law. She said she may also contact state senators because the Senate's filing deadline has not yet passed.
Morin said some education benefits in New Hampshire are different for the New Hampshire National Guard than for other veterans due to the way the National Guard operates. Other state military benefits do not differentiate between branches of the military, she said.
Under the same law, disabled veterans receive free entrance into state parks. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs determines disability, Morin said, and veterans with an injury or medical condition caused or aggravated by military service qualify as disabled, regardless of their military branch.
But Richard Thayer said learning about the state park entrance fee law was not the only time he felt as if his home state honored national guardsmen more than other branches of the military.