--- title: Veteran Asks Sarah Palin Not to Blame Obama for Son's PTSD description: Paul Rieckhoff responded to Sarah Palin's remarks about her son's recent domestic violence charges. canonical: https://time.com/4188993/veteran-palin-blame-ptsd/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-21T18:01:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:20:22.182Z article:section: Politics og:title: Veteran Asks Sarah Palin Not to Blame Obama for Son's PTSD og:description: Palin recently blamed Obama for her son's domestic violence charge og:url: https://time.com/4188993/veteran-palin-blame-ptsd/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41a27bd668819bf7/69887a05ab6d7740616a80e7/paul-riechkhoff-sarah-palin-ptsd.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: IAVA's Sixth Annual Heroes Gala og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Veteran Asks Sarah Palin Not to Blame Obama for Son's PTSD twitter:description: Palin recently blamed Obama for her son's domestic violence charge twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41a27bd668819bf7/69887a05ab6d7740616a80e7/paul-riechkhoff-sarah-palin-ptsd.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vet Urges Palin Not to Blame Obama for Son's PTSD by [Corky Siemaszko / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Corky Siemaszko / NBC News Jan 21, 2016 6:01 PM UTC  iAVA founder and CEO Paul Rieckhoff speaks at IAVA's Sixth Annual Heroes Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on November 13, 2012 in New York City. iAVA founder and CEO Paul Rieckhoff speaks at IAVA's Sixth Annual Heroes Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on November 13, 2012 in New York City.Fernando Leon–Getty Images by [Corky Siemaszko / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Corky Siemaszko / NBC News Jan 21, 2016 6:01 PM UTC Don’t blame President Obama for the PTSD that Sarah Palin claims her oldest son is battling. That was the message Wednesday from the head of a New York City-based veteran’s organization that has fought for years to get Iraq and Afghanistan war vets help with their post traumatic stress disorder. “It’s not President Obama’s fault that Sarah Palin’s son has PTSD,” said Paul Rieckhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). “PTSD is a very serious problem, a complicated mental health injury and I would be extremely reluctant to blame any one person in particular.” Rieckhoff weighed in… [_Read the full story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/veterans/vets-don-t-blame-obama-track-palin-s-behavior-n500716?cid=par-time-article%5F20141002) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4188993/veteran-palin-blame-ptsd/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4188993/veteran-palin-blame-ptsd/"},"headline":"Vet Urges Palin Not to Blame Obama for Son's PTSD","datePublished":"2016-01-21T18:01:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:20:22.182Z","description":"Former Alaska governor pointed finger at the president after Track Palin's arrest","url":"https://time.com/4188993/veteran-palin-blame-ptsd/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Sarah Palin"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41a27bd668819bf7/69887a05ab6d7740616a80e7/paul-riechkhoff-sarah-palin-ptsd.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Corky Siemaszko / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41a27bd668819bf7/69887a05ab6d7740616a80e7/paul-riechkhoff-sarah-palin-ptsd.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"IAVA's Sixth Annual Heroes Gala","caption":"IAVA's Sixth Annual Heroes Gala","creditText":"Fernando Leon–Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4188993/veteran-palin-blame-ptsd/","name":"Vet Urges Palin Not to Blame Obama for Son's PTSD"}}]}] ```