The Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs shall adopt regulations necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter.

Repealed or Renumbered

In this chapter, except where otherwise indicated, 'veteran' includes a person who served in the Alaska Territorial Guard.

Payment to a veterans' organization shall first be approved by the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs and so far as possible shall be on an equitable basis for rehabilitation work done.

Article 02. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

The Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs may receive gifts, donations, and grants from any person or agency. All gifts, donations, and grants shall be used in accordance with the donor's instructions.

(a) A veteran may record without fee the veteran's armed forces report of separation at a recorder's office of the Department of Natural Resources.

(b) [Repealed, Sec. 2 ch 25 SLA 2001].

The Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs may approve expenditures by veterans' organizations and may reimburse them for their expenditures in employing full time service officers, for necessary travel expenses, including travel by service officers outside of the state not more than once each year for purposes of training in veterans' rehabilitation and service work, and for per diem not exceeding that allowed state employees. The department shall limit payments to veterans' organizations to an amount that will fairly compensate them for salaries and expenses paid to their full time service officers in performing rehabilitation work for veterans, including the prosecution of their claims and solution of their problems arising out of military service. This service and assistance shall be given to all veterans and their dependents and to all beneficiaries of any military claim and shall include but not be limited to those services now given by the service departments of the respective organizations.

(a) The provisions of 50 U.S.C. App. 459 (sec. 9, Universal Military Training and Service Act), as amended, are extended to this state and its political subdivisions. It is the intent of this section that all re-employment benefits granted by 50 U.S.C. App. 459 to a veteran who was in the employ of a private employer at the time of the veteran's induction into the armed forces of the United States shall, in the same manner and to the same extent, be granted to a veteran who was in the employ of the State of Alaska or a political subdivision of the state at the time of induction into the armed forces of the United States.

(b) In this section, 'veteran' means a person

(1) subject to the Universal Military Training and Service Act; or

(2) who served in the Alaska Territorial Guard.

(a) The Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs shall pay, upon application, a death gratuity in the amount of $750 to the surviving spouse of a qualified veteran who was a resident of the state at the time of death. If the veteran has no surviving spouse, the gratuity shall be paid to the personal representative of the veteran. A veteran is qualified under this subsection if the veteran's

(1) burial occurred in the state on or after May 13, 1984; or

(2) death occurred on or after September 19, 1990.

(b) A death gratuity may be paid for a veteran otherwise eligible under (a) of this section even if the veteran died while temporarily absent from the state.

(c) The Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs may not pay a death gratuity unless the veteran for whom payment is made received an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions.

(d) In this section

(1) 'personal representative' includes administrator, executor, special administrator, successor personal representative, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status;

(2) 'veteran' means

(A) a person who served in a branch of the armed services of the United States

(i) who at the time of entry into the service was a resident of the territory or state, who had been a resident for not less than one year immediately before entry into the service, and who returned to the territory or state within one year after discharge as a resident with the intention of remaining in the territory or state; or

(ii) who was a resident of the state for not less than one year immediately preceding the time of death; or

(B) a person who served in the Alaska Territorial Guard, the Alaska Army National Guard, the Alaska Air National Guard, or the Alaska Naval Militia, or who served in a reserve unit of the United States armed forces in Alaska if the reserve unit required a minimum of one weekend of duty each month and 15 consecutive days of active duty training each year for not less than three years.