Tulsa, Oklahoma(CNN) Sarah Palin on Wednesday spoke of the damaging toll a 2008 combat deployment in Iraq had on her son, Track, who was arrested and charged in a domestic violence incident on Monday night.
"What my own son is going through, what he is going through coming back, I can relate to other families who feel ramifications of PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with," she told the audience at a rally for Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "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 called his arrest "the elephant in the room" and said of her son and other war veterans, "they come back a bit different, they come back hardened, 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, has given to the country."
Track Palin, 26, spent a year in Iraq after enlisting on Sept. 11, 2007.
He was arrested on Monday in Wasilla, Alaska, and charged with domestic violence assault on a female, interfering with a report of domestic violence and possession of a weapon while intoxicated, according to Dan Bennett, a spokesman for the Wasilla Police Department.
Track Palin's arrest was first reported by Gawker.