RESERVISTS: Serving at Navy Hospital : Reservists Who Filled Breach Are Oriented at Navy Hospital

Wear no more than one ring per hand; necklaces must be long enough to tuck in your shirt. Don’t get caught in Tijuana after midnight. And, lastly, dress in summer whites.

These orders were among the dozens of instructions doled out to almost 300 reservists who attended orientation Tuesday at the Navy Hospital in San Diego.

Since the onset of the Mideast crisis, 400 of the hospital’s 4,500-member staff have shipped out to the Mideast. The depleted staff forced a 50% cutback of inpatient surgical services and a 20% reduction of outpatient services. The hospital, with the help of reservists, will gear back up to 80% of its usual workload, said Rear Adm. Robert B. Halder, the hospital’s commanding officer.

“The most difficult part is over--we’ve got most of the reservists on board. Now it’s a process of orientation and integration,” Halder said. “But I don’t anticipate getting back to full 100% pre-deployment capacity.”

To patients, that could mean slightly longer-than-usual waits. But services should be better than they have been in recent weeks, hospital officials say.

Across San Diego, 295 reservists in medical professions were called to duty. Some went to the Camp Pendleton’s hospital; others went to the Navy hospital in Oakland. A handful were dispersed across the nation. Most were assigned to the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park, which has had to shut five of its 16 operating rooms.

At the hospital Tuesday, reserves went through a one-day orientation. Usually, the program takes one week, but hospital officials decided to cram everything into one day in hopes of getting the new workers in place sooner.

And many who attended the program, held in the auditorium, waxed patriotic about the unusual role they play in the Persian Gulf conflict.

“With a lot of my counterparts gone, it was an honor for me to be able to help out,” said Lt. Cmdr. Lynn Gormley, a 36-year-old nurse who lives in Vista and had served in the Navy for 12 years before she joined the reserves.

The hospital was allotted 269 enlisted personnel, 12 doctors and 10 nurses, said Lt. Cmdr. Nancy Clancy, a reserve liaison officer with the medical facility. In the weeks ahead, the hospital may get another 30, but officials do not expect the number to change dramatically, Clancy said.

Several of those assigned here, however, hail from states across the country. And, for them, the abrupt change in their lives is also a lonely one.

Reserve petty officer Karen Dalziel, 22, had attended the first three days of her senior year at University of Iowa when she was called to report. Dalziel, who lives in Cedar Rapids, is one of 12 Navy reservists from her landlocked state who were called up, officials said.

Dalziel, who joined the reserves to earn extra money to help get through college, will now graduate as an accounting major a semester later than her classmates. Married a year, she and her husband have been remodeling a small two-bedroom house that they hoped to move into during the weeks ahead. The kitchen cabinets and countertops were just installed.

Dalziel was the only member of her reserve unit who was called.

“When I found out it was just me, it broke the camel’s back,” said Dalziel, who wept when she learned of her assignment but has since reconciled herself to the fluke that landed her miles from home in a city where she knows no one. “It was quite a shock.”

For Dalziel, however, the blow is not financial, since she is actually earning more money than she was as a full-time student. But Cmdr. John W. King, an orthopedic surgeon from Scottsdale, Ariz., finds his patriotism has made him financially vulnerable.

King left his wife, their four children, whose ages range from 13 to 7, as well as his private practice. With a thriving practice, King, who grew up in a Navy family, was earning about $275,000 annually. Under his reserve salary, however, he will probably earn less than one quarter of that.

“I love the Navy--it’s one of those ill-defined emotions,” said King, who served six years in the Navy and five years in the reserves. “Financially, it’s a disaster.”

But his assignment also endangers the livelihood of his four-person staff. For the 90-day stint that he has been asked to serve, King will keep paying his physician’s assistant, two secretaries and office manager. He will also have to pay $55,000 in malpractice insurance, as well as office rent.

King now lives in lodgings for Navy officers. His $11-a-day room resembles a college dormitory. At home, his wife and children live in their five-bedroom house, with a swimming pool, big porch and patio.

“In my heart, I know it’s going to work out. It’s probably the biggest financial setback in my life--it’s a major bump in the road,” said King, 43. “But I like to focus on the bright side.”

For King, that bright side means working with new colleagues as well as having the time to exercise, since he figures his hours at the Navy hospital will be less rigorous than his usual 14-hour days.

Despite the financial consequences, King, in fact, volunteered for duty in the Persian Gulf.

“If I am going to be away from my family, I would much rather be where the action is,” King said. “And I feel I could be much more useful to the guy in the trench. I look at the Navy, as they say, as an adventure.”