Southland Is Mobilizing on Vietnam Scale

As the United States and Iraq confront each other half a world away, Southern California’s home front is mobilizing on a scale not seen since the Vietnam War.

Thousands of military reservists are bracing--some hopefully, some warily--for a possible call to duty by their commander in chief.

“My wife was crying last night,” said Mark Little of Orange, a 34-year-old communications specialist with the California Air National Guard. “She’s afraid I’ll be called up and sent not just to another country but to the crisis zone. And not for a week or a month, but six months to a year. . . .

“I tell her I won’t be called. . . . I try to sound positive, but I’m not. It’s certainly a possibility. I have it in the back of my mind that this is going on, but life goes on.”

“I hope and pray this will be successfully resolved in a peaceful manner. But if that’s not to be, I hope to be part of the alternate approach,” said Los Angeles Police Capt. Keith Bushey, who also holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps reserves.

Meanwhile, veterans of the anti-war movement in the 1960s are raising their voices--and organizing--against the United States’ strong military response to the latest Middle East crisis.

“We didn’t belong in Vietnam . . . and we don’t belong over there,” said Robert Elias, who is helping organize a march to commemorate the 20th anniversary of a massive demonstration in East Los Angeles that was aimed in part against the war in Vietnam.

In a world that wearily celebrated the end of the Cold War, the sudden prospect of major combat in the Middle East has been felt with a dizzying impact in Southern California. Some people here are eager to fight, some are eager to protest--and many are bewildered by it all.

In Orange County, the effects have ranged from an irrational run on gas masks that are useless against Iraq’s deadly chemicals to down-home goodwill.

The owner of two stationery stores began giving customers free, yard-long yellow ribbons Wednesday to tie “anywhere they want until our people come home.” The owner of a Dana Point hot dog shop began offering free food and drinks to children of the military serving in the Middle East. And the Irvine Co. announced that it would reduce rents by $100 a month for any military reservists who are tenants of the landowner’s 9,000 Orange County units.

The children of Marines and Naval personnel already deployed in Saudi Arabia ask troubling questions of their teachers. Reserve forces faced with calls to military duty worry not just about their own lives and the effect on their families, but also the disruption of careers and businesses.

President Bush’s decision to mobilize 40,000 reserve forces--and, ultimately, up to 150,000--has brought the crisis closer to home.

If more reservists are called, some civilian employers are wondering how they’ll make do without them. Hospitals will lose doctors and nurses, police departments their officers. Orange County has about 13,000 National Guard members and reservists, many of them police and firefighters. If worse comes to worst, Los Angeles could conceivably lose more than 400 policemen.

“You can anticipate . . . that there may be some hospitals that are going to find themselves short of some residents,” said Dr. James Todd, executive vice president of the American Medical Assn. Todd said older, supervising doctors would have to take up the slack.

More than 18,000 physicians in the United States are in the reserves; 7,500 of them could be called under the Bush Administration’s plan. There are 6,540 dentists and 25,886 nurses; of those, 2,458 dentists and 13,584 nurses could be called.

Nevertheless, hospital officials throughout Southern California predicted that the call-up would not significantly impair their ability to provide services. Although medical professionals will be called up, they said there will be enough left behind to fill the gaps.

“There just aren’t that many physicians from California in the reserves any more,” said David Langness of the Hospital Council of Southern California. Langness suggested that poorer communities may be hardest hit because many physicians from lower-income areas signed up for the reserves in return for financial support in medical school.

Already the impact is being felt at the Naval Hospital San Diego, also known as Balboa Hospital. The shipping out of active-duty medical personnel has forced a 50% reduction in in-patient surgical services and a 20% reduction in outpatient services, a hospital spokesman said.

H. Sam Samuelson said that reservists who were putting in time at the hospital in recent weeks have been asked to stay on to help out. He said the reservists likely to be called up in the coming weeks probably will not report to the hospital for another four to six weeks.

At the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Los Angeles, about 80 members of the 3,200-person staff are in the reserves. “I personally, at this point, feel there would be minimal impact,” Henry Maar, chief of personnel, said.

Law enforcement agencies--which include many retired military personnel in their ranks--also may be forced to cover for large numbers of reservists. The 8,400-member Los Angeles police force includes 450 reservists and the 11,000-member Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has 150, spokesmen for those agencies said.

“I don’t think . . . all active reserves would be called up, but whatever happens, we’d absorb it,” said police Cmdr. William Booth. “The police chief is a strong supporter of the reserves, and that means supporting them when they’re needed, not just when they aren’t.”

Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson said he did not know how many reservists are employed by the 2,000-staff department. But he said a helicopter pilot and a jail deputy--both reservists--were called to active duty several days ago.

“I’m not sure what the impact would be,” Olson said, “but somehow their positions would have to be filled with more bodies or overtime.”

Some reservists have been activated already but most are waiting for the call.

At the Army Reserve regional command post at Los Alamitos, things were quiet Wednesday except for a few helicopter pilots getting in some flight hours.

The two-star general who commands reserves from Fresno to Las Vegas as part of the 63rd Army Reserve Command was off the base, at work at his civilian job with a public utility. And as the waiting game continues, base officials said, they still do not know what President Bush’s decision will mean for the 10,000 Army reservists in Southern California.

But even as Army Reserve officials played down speculation, talk was strong among the troops about the possibilities.

“They haven’t called us yet, but I’ve been trying to get my personal affairs in order for two weeks now,” said Bob Pracht of Chino Hills, a reserve helicopter pilot. “Still, I don’t think we’re really going to have to go unless it comes down to war.”

Many reservists, however, see war as a bad career move. Physicians with thriving practices--from orthopedics to obstetrics--suddenly find themselves facing the prospect of an indefinite tour of duty, proably not in the Mideast but as “backfill” in military hospitals throughout the United States.

Dr. Albert Kapstrom, a 56-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist at a health maintenance organization in Los Angeles, conceded that he was feeling a bit frightened. “I’ve lived a good life, I’ve been married 32 years, I have five children,” he mused.

“I think about a lot of things,” said Kapstrom, a colonel and commander in the Air National Guard. “I think about the irrationality of the people who have put themselves against our country. I think about the loneliness that goes with separation from family.

“I wonder now, when those individuals in the unit would turn to me for nurture, would I be strong enough to give them the strength they need when I would be laboring under the same stresses?”

Another doctor in the reserves, Constante U. Abaya of Oxnard, said he will have to shut down his practice, fire two employees and take a drastic pay cut if he is activated.

What is more, he has two sons in college. “I just signed a lease for my boy’s apartment at USC,” Abaya said with a rueful chuckle.

“But if I did not have these responsibilities, I would probably be the first to volunteer,” added Abaya, who has been in the reserves for seven years.

Marine reservist Graham Morse, 31, of Santa Monica, is a sheet-metal contractor in civilian life.

“I’ve got a ton of business,” Morse said. “I’m wondering if I’m going to be able to get back to my business. But if it comes down to the wire, it’s got to be done.”

Lt. Col. Clifton Uyematsu, 45, an Anaheim resident who works as a retail store designer for Hallmark, is acting commander of the 56th Aerial Port Squadron at the 445th Military Airlift Wing, an Air Force reserve unit of 3,300 at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino.

His unit’s job is to load passengers and cargo on planes, a duty that the Pentagon on Wednesday said must be filled by reserves. So he figures he will go.

“As a civilian,” he said, “I think it’s going to cause some inconvenience because now our routine has been disrupted. But for the most part, I think our particular squadron has been focused on the training that prepares us for a situation like this.”

His wife and two sons, 19 and 17, “would rather have me stay home, but they support the program. They know leaving has always been a possibility,” he said.

Carolyn Emry, head of emergency nursing at San Clemente General Hospital, said she recently signed up for the reserves, with the hope that she would be called to active duty. But she said she does not expect to be called until October.

“I’ve always wanted to go since I got out of nurses’ training,” Emry said Wednesday. “But then I got married and had kids. . . . Now I can go have that adventure and excitement and not worry. There are no kids to raise and the house is taken care of--you know, all the things you would normally worry about if you were going. And I think I can share a lot of experience.”

The eagerness with which some reservists greeted the prospect of being called up was also reflected in recruiting offices and reserve training centers. Phone inquires have increased from would-be volunteers, but most never call back after hearing the requirements, such as a high school education and basic training, recruiters say.

“A lot of people think they can walk in and leave the next day,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Tom Richard at the Navy recruiting office in East Los Angeles. “You always have the gung-ho people who come out of the woodwork and say they’re ready to go.”

The threat of actual war in the Persian Gulf also has not scared off recruits, he added.

“I have not had anybody say, ‘Kiss my royal posterior, I’m not going over there,’ ” Richard said.

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Stephen Hernandez said the Encino training center has received a large number of calls lately from former servicemen who want to join up again. One call even came from a World War II veteran.

“Everyone wants to come back in. We’ve been giving out recruiters’ (phone) numbers like crazy,” Hernandez said. “There’s so much support out there, I can’t believe it.”

But anti-war sentiment already is visible.

Ron Kovic, the paraplegic Vietnam veteran whose life story inspired the movie “Born on the 4th of July,” appeared at a rally Wednesday to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia.

Kovic read a letter to President Bush at a crowded anti-war rally inside the Parish Church of St. Augustine-by-the-Sea in Santa Monica. About 100 activists cheered Kovic, while several counter-demonstrators burned the Iraqi flag outside, picketed the rally and called the former Marine sergeant a traitor to his country.

“I hope and pray, Mr. President, that you have heard me today,” Kovic said, “because I truly feel that I represent the conscience and hearts of millions of our people who have not yet chosen to speak.”

Some Latino activists said they fear that because minorities and the poor are disproportionately represented in U.S. military forces, they will suffer the most if war breaks out in the Middle East.

“As in Vietnam, you have poor kids in military service of all races, including Mexicans, who will bear the brunt of war,” said Rodolfo Acuna, professor of Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge. “Just because they are poor, they become cannon fodder.

“Right now, everybody is gung-ho, but nobody has been shot yet,” Acuna added. “Americans are patriotic until they start getting killed.”

Times staff writers Eric Lichtblau, Nancy Wride, Lucy Chabot, Gary Gorman, Joel Sappell, Tracy Wilkinson, Kevin Roderick, David Ferrell, Louis Sahagun, Dave Smollar, Ron Smith, Jack Cheevers and Josh Meyer contributed to this report.

O.C. MILITARY RESERVE UNITS

ARMY NATIONAL GUARD (to the 40th Infantry Division Mechanized) Headquarters: Los Alamitos. More than 13,000 members Mission: Assist in state emergencies as recommended by the governor; currently involved in fighting forest fires and assisting war on drugs. Support active Army, mainly as mechanized infantry. Personnel Breakdown: Mechanized infantry includes tank crews, heavy equipment, bridging equipment, helicopters, artillery and communications equipment. Largest mobilized National Guard unit on the West Coast. ARMY RESERVE Headquarters: Irvine. 1,600 Reserve members Mission: Logistical, combat and service support. Personnel Breakdown: Logistical support, combat service support units, combat arms. NAVAL RESERVE Headquarters: Irvine. 400 Reserve members Mission: Support active Navy, mainly in construction and medical capacities. Personnel Breakdown: 60 medical, 100 construction battalion, 60 amphibious construction, 180 various support personnel, including shipyard supplies and research. MARINE RESERVE Headquarters: Los Alamitos and Tustin. 1,025 Reserve Members Mission: Supervise and assist attached Marine Corps Reserve units. Personnel Breakdown: 125 Reserve members in Company D, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Squadron, 4th Marine Infantry Division.

900 Reserve members and 6 squadrons make up Marine Aircraft Group 46.

Marine aviation logistics, Squadron 46; Marine Air Support, Squadron 6, Det. B; Marine Wing Support Squadron 472; Marine Air Traffic Control, Squadron 48, Det. A; Fighter Attachment, Squadron 134; Medium Helicopter, Squadron 764.