Long stay overseas riles Minnesota National Guard families Sharon Schmickle Star Tribune Published 09/19/2003
Families of a Minnesota National Guard company plan to meet with state Guard officials Sunday for what they characterize as an "angry confrontation" over extended tours of duty in Iraq and other issues.
"Several of us were outraged at learning our soldiers were expected to stay one calendar year in [Iraq and Kuwait]," said Constance Potter of Crystal, whose father and brother are stationed near Baghdad with Charlie Company of the 142nd Engineer Combat Battalion.
"These are citizen soldiers with businesses and jobs being treated as regular career soldiers and officers and forced to stay in Iraq," she said.
The families' anger has reverberated nationwide as hostilities in Iraq continue with no firm return date for nearly 27,000 Guard and reserve members stationed in the Persian Gulf region.
Families in Kansas say they have gathered nearly 8,000 signatures on "Bring them home" petitions collected through a Web site created by wives of soldiers in an Army Reserve transportation company. Their husbands' unit was activated in January but didn't reach Iraq until May. Now it expects to remain there until next May because the Army announced this month that soldiers currently in Iraq and Kuwait would be there for as long as one year.
"There are single parents, business owners, employees and new fathers in our unit," the Kansas group said in a statement posted on its Web site, http://www.129bringthemhome.com. "The reserve system has never before been asked to handle the families' needs for such an extended period of time nor was it designed to do so."
The Kansas group also has scheduled a public meeting Sunday with at least one Congress member and local officials.
Limits
In Minnesota, Brig. Gen. Harry Sieben Jr., the acting Guard leader, will meet with families Sunday at Camp Ripley near Little Falls, said Maj. Kevin Olson, a Guard spokesman.
"The Minnesota National Guard recognizes what a burden deployment has been on family members, communities and employers," Olson said. "We welcome opportunities to discuss these concerns."
There are limits to what state-level officials can do about the complaints. The deployed soldiers are on a federal mission, Olson said, and "as such, they are under the control of the Army and the Air Force, not the Minnesota National Guard."
What local officials can do, he said, is bolster family support networks.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has blamed an outdated personnel system for the need to reach deeply into the Guard and reserve forces for the war in Iraq. He supports legislation that would give the Pentagon more authority in hiring, firing and assigning civilian workers.
Because the Pentagon lacks sufficient authority to manage its civilian workforce, Rumsfeld wrote in a commentary last week, "some 200,000 reserve troops left jobs and families to help fight the war on terrorism while an estimated 300,000 active-duty military people occupy staff positions here at home that could be filled by civilians."
Families of Guard and reserve members say the extension of service isn't the only problem. Their loved ones in Iraq complain of morale so low that fights are breaking out within units. One major problem is idle time, Potter said.
"Members of my father's unit have served the state of Minnesota during floods, storms and in every engineering capacity imaginable," she said. "My father is proud to have been a part of such a fantastic unit. Since their deployment, they have not been given one mission to rebuild anything."
Dr. Sherry Billups of Blackduck, Minn., said her husband, Steven Baazard of Minnesota's Charlie Company, received notice on Jan. 20 that he was being activated.
The separation would be difficult enough, Billups said, but the greater frustration comes in reports that her husband's unit has little work to do at its post north of Baghdad. "Why do they need to stay if there is nothing for them to do? If they aren't being used, they should be able to come home."
She asked the question in letters to President Bush, Rumsfeld, Congress members and several other federal and state officials.
Three of the 13 who received her letters a month ago have responded, she said, with sympathy but no real power to help. Meanwhile, the nonresponses have added fuel to a growing fire.
Sharon Schmickle is atsschmickle at startribune.com.