Fired National Guard Nurse Sues Employer : Military: She says she was dismissed from civilian job because she missed work while on active duty during gulf crisis call-up.

An Army National Guard nurse from Santa Ana has filed suit against her civilian employer, charging that she was illegally fired for missing work after being called to active duty in the Persian Gulf crisis.

Capt. Debra M. Simpson, 35, claims in her Superior Court suit that she was fired from her administrative position at the Kangaroo Kids Center for chronically ill or disabled children on Oct. 3, the day she returned to work after a month’s active duty in Germany. Simpson claimed her employer told her she was being terminated for “abandonment of her position.”

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 officials of the corporation also were unsuccessful.

National Guard officials in Sacramento said federal law prohibits civilian employers from firing or demoting workers called to active duty. 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 current international crisis.

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

The suit asks for compensatory and punitive damages “in an amount to be determined at the time of trial.”

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 lawyers, Thomas L. Brown and Michael De Benon, said in interviews in their Westminster office that Simpson is “devastated” by the loss of her job at the pediatric care center.

Simpson’s orders show she was called to active duty Sept. 2-28 and sent to a military post in Nuremberg, Germany, to fill in for a nurse who was rotated to Saudi Arabia, Brown said.

“This is a competent, highly trained woman,” he 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.”