Nurse Says Boss Fired Her After Tour of Active Duty : Call-up: A National Guard captain sues firm for dismissing her on return from serving in gulf crisis.

An Army National Guard nurse filed suit against her civilian employer Thursday, alleging that she was illegally fired for missing work after being called to active duty during the Persian Gulf crisis.

Capt. Debra M. Simpson, 35, of Santa Ana alleges in her Superior Court suit that she was fired from her administrative position at a Santa Ana care facility for chronically ill or disabled children on Oct. 3, the day she returned to work after a month of active duty overseas.

Her employer orally told her that she was being terminated for “abandonment of her position,” Simpson’s suit alleges.

National Guard officials in Sacramento said federal law forbids civilian employers’ firing or demoting people called to active duty by the U.S. military. They said Simpson is the first guard member or reservist in the state claiming to have lost a job because of call-ups during the gulf crisis.

“We are very concerned that none of our people lose their jobs or be demoted,” said Maj. Bruce Roy, public affairs officer for the California National Guard. “And so we work to educate businesses and companies about how the law protects those who are called to active duty.

“This type of thing is something that concerns us very much,” Roy added.

According to the lawsuit, Simpson worked as hospital administrator at Kangaroo Kids Center for Fragile Children in Santa Ana. She has not found permanent employment since being fired, the suit alleges.

Officials of Care Visions Corp., which operates the Kangaroo Kids Center, declined to comment on Simpson’s suit or its allegations.

Julia Bell, chief executive officer of Care Visions Corp. and a defendant in the lawsuit, declined comment during a brief telephone conversation. Efforts to get statements from other corporation officials were also unsuccessful.

Simpson is a registered nurse with special training in military medical air evacuation. This week she is again on active duty with the Army National Guard and could not be contacted.

However, her attorneys, Thomas L. Brown and Michael De Benon, said at their Westminster office that Simpson is “devastated” by the loss of her job.

“This is a competent, highly trained woman,” Brown said. “She was doing her military duty. She informed the corporation, in writing, that she was going to be on active duty for a month, and she even told them when she was getting back. But when she came back to work that day (Oct. 3), she was coolly treated for a few hours and then told she was being fired because she had abandoned her position.”

Simpson alleges that her employer, by firing her, violated a state law prohibiting “wrongful discharge.”

Brown said the suit could also have been filed in federal court, because there is a federal law against wrongfully firing reservists or guard personnel. “We filed the complaint in state court because, frankly, she can get a bigger settlement under the state law,” he added.

The suit sets no specific damages but asks for compensatory and punitive damages “in an amount to be determined at the time of trial.”

Defendants named in the suit are Care Visions Corp., Kangaroo Kids Center for Fragile Children, Bell and Jeffrey Gasser, listed as being the president and chief operating officer of Care Visions.

Simpson’s military orders show that she was called to active duty for Sept. 2 through 28. She was sent to a military post in Nuremberg, Germany.

Brown said Simpson filled in for another nurse in Nuremberg who was rotated to Saudi Arabia. Since August, Saudi Arabia has been the buildup site for thousands of U.S. troops sent to defend that key Middle East oil kingdom.

Simpson’s suit says that she orally informed Bell, her immediate supervisor, that she was being called to active duty.

The suit says Simpson also “gave written notice of her required leave of absence” from the care home.

The suit alleges: “As a proximate result of the wrongful discharge of plaintiff (Simpson), plaintiff has become unemployed and has been unable to find satisfactory work of a similar kind by which to support herself and has become emotionally distressed.”

Brown said Simpson is now again on active duty, for a short period in Tennessee.

“She’s a specialist in medical air evacuation, and her military skills are really needed,” Brown said.