Sarah Palin acknowledged Wednesday that her oldest son is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from his Iraqi combat service, and said the root of his issues can be traced to the White House and President Barack Obama.
"They come back hardened," Palin stated. "They come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country, and that starts at the top.
"So, when my own son is going through what he goes through after coming back, I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of some PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with — and it makes me realize more than ever, it is now or never for the sake of America's finest, that we have that commander-in-chief who will respect them and honor them."
Palin's oldest son, Track, 26, was charged with assault, interfering with the report of a domestic violence crime and possessing a weapon while intoxicated.
Track Palin's girlfriend was afraid that he would shoot himself with the assault rifle, according to news reports. The incident occurred Monday night at the Wasilla home of his parents, where he lives.
"I can talk personally about this," the former Alaska governor said at a Donald Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, She then attacked Obama for his neglect of the nation's veterans.
"I guess it's kind of an elephant in the room, because my own family, going through what we're going through today with my son, a combat vet, having served in a striker brigade fighting for you all Americas in the war zone, but my son, like so many others, they come back a bit different."
Palin family attorney John Tiemessen only said Tuesday that respect for the family's privacy was appreciated "as Track receives the help that he and many of our returning veterans need."
Track Palin was an Army reservist in Iraq in 2008. He was a private first class in the Alaska-based 25th Infantry Division's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, known as the "Arctic Wolves." He spent a year in Iraq.
Among the incidents that have occurred since Track Palin's military service have included a divorce from his wife, Britta, in 2012 after a year and a daughter who was born after the split; and
a drunken brawl in October 2014 that involved the whole family and occurred at one of their friend's home.
His mother, the 2008 vice presidential candidate,
endorsed Trump in Iowa on Tuesday. She has since been stumping with him, with the first stop in Oklahoma.
In her attack on Obama's failure to help the nation's veterans, Palin said "our vets and you deserve a commander-in-chief who will respect what it is that our forces go through and would never leave them behind.
"I'm talking about not leaving our wounded warriors behind also," she said. "Our wounded warriors who come home from the battlefield, bringing new battles with them.
"Our wounded warriors, sometimes in body and in mind, coming back different than when they left for the war zone."