U.S. Reserves Swing Into Action as Bush Orders the Call-Up : Military: The President’s order launches an intricate process of notifying the nation’s citizen-soldiers.

Even before President Bush stepped to the microphone Wednesday to announce his mobilization of military reserves to support the Persian Gulf deployment, phones were ringing in the homes and offices of citizen-soldiers across the nation.

Reserve unit commanders were checking their rosters and getting the word out to make sure the frequently practiced but rarely executed call-up process would go smoothly, once the Pentagon designates which units must report and where they will be going.

“It’s a big process to get everyone in place,” said Lt. Col. David Super, a spokesman with the Pentagon’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. “But that process has been going on for some time. It didn’t start with today’s announcement.”

When they get the word, reservists will have as little as 24 hours to leave civilian jobs and present themselves to armory centers, probably as early as today.

Orders will be passed down a detailed chain of command, initiated by the President’s signature on an executive order authorizing Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to instruct the various military branches to use their reserves to “augment the active armed forces for the effective conduct of operational missions in and around the Arabian Peninsula.”

After Administration officials have decided which reserve units are needed for what military tasks, the military bureaucracy goes to work. A series of phone calls and faxed messages will spew forth from the Pentagon to selected reserve units in the 50 states and several U.S. territories.

Although every member of a designated reserve unit is legally bound to report to the appointed duty station, not every reservist will be called up for active duty, Singer said.

After reservists sign in for active reserve duty, officers conduct a screening to make sure each reservist is ready and fit for service.

“We’ll look at health records, their administrative record and make sure their paper work and personal affairs are in order,” Singer said, noting that reserve officials may reject individual reservists “on a case-by-case basis.” Those decisions are made by the various service branches.

Maj. Ron Kelley, a public affairs spokesman for the California National Guard in Sacramento, said individual unit commanders are anxious to learn if their units will be used.

“So far, we have heard nothing here in California yet,” Kelley said shortly after the President’s televised announcement. “We’re just waiting by the phones to see what units they will need.” California has 86,000 reservists and National Guard members.

Once they are approved and outfitted for service, reservists are given their assignments and told to report for duty at other locations.

Kelley said few reserve units are likely to be sent to Saudi Arabia, although some probably will go.

“The units that will be activated are more likely to be sent to fill gaps vacated by those (soldiers) sent to the Middle East,” he said. “We could be sent to other parts of California, could be sent to Texas or to Europe because a lot of soldiers were sent from those places to the Middle East. They left holes in the military that have to filled.”

But as reservists take their place, similar holes will appear in the civilian work force.

Jonathan Waldron, a dentist in Marietta, Ga., is worried about what will happen to his 13-year, four-employee dental practice if he is called to action as a part of the 4th Marine Air Wing Medical Unit at the Marietta Naval Air Station. As of late Wednesday, he had not heard whether his unit would be called.

But medical units like the outfit that Waldron serves as a commanding officer are among the highest priority for duty, according the Administration officials.

“I’m prepared to go, if I’m called,” Waldron said. “But I’m not volunteering.”

Waldron, who served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and has been a reserve officer for 20 years, is a strong supporter of a civilian army. “I think that’s one of the aspects of the military we can be proudest of,” he said.

Nevertheless, being called up for active duty would pose a tremendous hardship on his wife, son and daughter and would cause a “substantial” loss of money for his practice, he said.

“It’s kind of hard to call 1,300 patients and ask them to stick with me,” he said, adding that other doctors have agreed to see his patients and handle office administrative duties. “I plan to send each (patient) a personal letter and ask for their support in this difficult time. I don’t know how many of them would stay with me.”