AFTER THE RIOTS : Civilian Soldiers Tally Personal Casualties : National Guard: As duty drags on, patience is running low. Many are faced with the loss of civilian jobs and lack of money for their families.

The waiting continues and duties have descended to cleaning weapons and latrines, but National Guard griping is hitting new heights.

With good reason: Some say they have lost their temporary civilian jobs after 13 days of riot duty. One infantry officer says Guard service may have cost his one-man design engineering firm a $100,000 contract and killed smaller projects worth $20,000.

Relief was in sight for some of the troops Tuesday, when Gov. Pete Wilson announced he had ordered the National Guard force to be reduced from 10,000 to 6,000. However, he gave no precise timetable for the pullout.

Those left behind remain stuck in a holding action that, apart from small, isolated patrols, continues with thousands of citizen soldiers poised in armories and staging areas throughout Southern California.

Said one soldier: “I first heard we’d be going home Wednesday, then Friday, then not any time soon and then that we could be here indefinitely.”

In the meantime, National Guard members were assessing their personal casualties.

“My wife is burning through the savings and so we’re back to square one with the business,” said Lt. Randall Thomas of Ventura, owner of the design engineering firm facing six-figure losses. “But this is what I signed up to do, so I’m not going to argue it with myself.”

Other soldiers, however, are arguing. They were expecting to face gunfire on dark streets. They weren’t prepared to miss college finals. Or suspend escrow negotiations on new homes and empty savings accounts while military paychecks make the slow plod from Washington and Sacramento.

A few have voted with their boots and have been listed as AWOL.

Lt. Stan Zezotarski of California Guard headquarters in Sacramento says military pay does indeed dawdle, especially when two paymasters are involved. In this case, the state is paying part of the bill and then Washington must chip in for the eight days Guard members were under federal control. Enlisted soldiers generally are paid from $29 to $45 a day, with private employers often--but not always--picking up the difference.

Zezotarski said the pay system also is geared “for payment when they (soldiers) process out, not at some midpoint . . . but every effort is being made to take care of the soldiers.”

That is cold comfort for Spec. Gerardo Montelongo of Ventura, a father of four attached to the 144th Field Artillery.

“My bank account has dried up,” Montelongo complained. “I have 76 cents left from the $50 I brought with me. I’m going to use that on a phone call to the Red Cross and have them take food to my home.”

Montelongo--who doesn’t know if he still has the job he started a month ago with a personnel placement service--is sitting out this week in a field behind the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Brentwood. He and his colleagues are sleeping in dirty fatigues with roaches in their sleeping bags, and living “like second-class citizens.”

A member of the same unit, who asked not be identified, said taxpayers’ money--at an official rate of $1 million per day--is being wasted while “we’re sitting on our butts.”

On the streets, he continued, Guard spirits were high. “But now our mission is sleep, go down to the parking lot and hang out,” he said. “Morale is hanging on a thread, and from the company commander on down.”

Soldiers are worried that as newspapers and television stations report a continuing calm, employers may start questioning their employees’ extended absences. They also could balk at granting two weeks’ absence for the Guard’s mandatory summer encampment to workers who already spent two weeks--or more--on riot duty.

Federal and state laws require employers to preserve and restore jobs and benefits to Guard members called to active duty. But the laws do not cover soldiers in temporary jobs.

So Sgt. Kenneth Brown of Colton, attached to the 132nd Engineer Battalion, has lost his temporary job as a heavy-equipment operator. He had been hired by Advanco Constructors of Upland to grade a portion of a reservoir project.

Ron Devine, a construction manager for the firm, said it was a five-day job. “There was only one day left when he (Brown) was called to duty,” he said. “So we had it done by someone else.”

Devine added that although Advanco has no current work for its former employee, Brown will be called “if we have anything that fits him . . . these guys (Guardsmen) deserve some extra consideration.”

At the Inglewood armory of the 3rd Battalion, 163rd Infantry, morale was a concern in the minds of many, especially the battalion commander, Maj. Bill Wenger.

“The soldiers are saying employ us, or send us home,” he said. “Essentially, we are waiting for the political hierarchy to make a decision.”

Maj. Lee Rogers, the battalion executive officer, noted: “The morale of the unit is one of anticipation at going home . . . and the frustration of being cooped up in this armory for four days. My temper is quick, my frustration is high.”

Officers and enlisted soldiers agreed that tempers likely will be fraying faster as tours of duty reach into their third week.

Lt. Fred Young already has missed the final he was to take last week needed for his master’s of business administration from Azusa Pacific University. Spec. Lawrence Doss, a Compton probation officer, is fretting the escrow he was closing on his family’s first home. Pfc. Arthur Pink, unemployed for two years, was starting a new job the day he was called for duty and barely had time to finish his carrier’s orientation lecture with the U.S. Postal Service.

Above all, the talk was about money and how to make civilian ends meet.

“I figure my Guard paycheck will just about cover my (monthly) Chevron charges,” griped a soldier.

Staff Sgt. John Krone, 42, an industrial investigator for Northrop, knows that his employer will make up the difference between his guard and civilian salaries. But it will take a while for all payments and adjustments to be made.

“So I’ll take out a short-term loan for $2,000 to cover the immediate expenses,” he said. Then Krone must address a deeper problem. “Settling the family down because they have felt kind of undefended because their man isn’t there.”

But pity the woes of the young soldier who last week was dumped by his girlfriend. Losing her was pain enough. Then he discovered she had left with his ATM card.

Times staff writer Nora Zamichow contributed to this story.