Occasionally at war, Yankee gets confused (4)
I believe the answer is:
awry
'confused' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'occasionally at war yankee' is the wordplay.
'occasionally' means one should take alternating letters (letters taken at regular intervals or occasions).
'yankee' becomes 'Y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'at'+'war'='atwar'
The alternating letters of 'atwar' are 'awr'.
'awr'+'y'='AWRY'
'gets' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for awry that I've seen before include "deviant" , "Haywire" , "Wary (anag.)" , "Wonky" , "out of uniform?" .)