The U.S. Army authorized a two-month payment of retirement benefit checks to the 26 retired members of the Alaska Territorial Guard Wednesday.

ATG members lost their benefit last week when the Army reviewed the law and decided there was a discrepancy in the language of the law that requires them to pay $557 in retirement benefits to ATG veterans. The Army understood the law as saying ATG service does not count toward military retirement.

The Army said they misinterpreted the law, according to a press release from Alaska's congressional delegation Wednesday.

Checks were to be mailed to ATG members Wednesday - the same day the Army made the decision to reinstate the benefits.

Secretary of the Army Pete Geren authorized temporary payment for ATG members, giving Congress time to revisit the issue. The Alaska delegation introduced legislation to Congress Wednesday that would permanently clarify that the "service in the ATG is credible toward military retirement," the release read.

The Army will cover the payments with an emergency expense fund through March.

"This is great news for these Alaska Territorial Guardsmen who fought bravely to defend our country during World War II," said Sen. Mark Begich. "I appreciate Secretary Geren's intervention on this issue and giving it the priority attention it deserves. These emergency payments will give us some time to get the problem resolved while making sure these brave Alaskans get the retirement benefit they so deserve."

The ATG, a largely Alaska Native militia group, defended Alaska during the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands in 1942, and continued to be the eyes and ears for the United States, armed and ready to defend the territory's shores from enemy invasion, through 1947.

Reach the reporter at jillfankhauser.@alaskastar.com.