America’s Reservists Answer the Call

With a smile, George Durgin Jr. described the small bouquet of yellow roses he planned to buy for his bride to carry during their hastily arranged wedding on Saturday.

A small token, perhaps, but at least he would be the one making the arrangement, Durgin explained. It’ll be up to her, he lamented, to move their belongings into their new Oceanside home, to unpack the boxes, to pay the bills.

Durgin won’t be there to help. Terrorists have seen to that.

After the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the federal government began calling up reservists, “America’s 911 force,” Durgin quipped. “I’m responding, even if the call happened to have come at the worst time possible for us.”

By Wednesday, Durgin, supervisor of forensics experts with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, will drive to his new assignment as an Army Reserve sergeant major at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C. He will be gone for six months, maybe longer.

Across the country, reservists like Durgin are rearranging their lives to answer the call. Wills are being drawn up, child care is being arranged, and support networks are gearing up to help thousands of families that will be left behind.

So far, more than 10,000 reservists and National Guard members have been tapped. Thousands more are expecting the phone call.

Robin Umberg of Villa Park, a colonel who commands an Army Reserve hospital, said planning and preparation are going much smoother than when U.S. reservists were called up a decade ago for the war against Iraq.

She attributes the change to patriotism and training born out of lessons learned. There is also a clear sense of purpose that Operation Desert Storm did not provide.

“What we are doing is fighting for safety, for our children, for our country,” Umberg said. “There can be no more valid reason than that.”

She has fielded phone calls in the last 12 days from subordinates wanting to volunteer for active duty. Their enthusiasm makes her proud, she said, even if she can’t let them go. Her mobile medical unit must keep its staff intact.

Umberg is also having to make some personal sacrifices.

She and her husband, former Orange County Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg, who shares her rank in the Army Reserve, canceled a trip next month to visit their daughter Erin, a plebe at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Her husband’s run for state insurance commissioner is also in question. The financial burden of reserve duty is another hardship, one that the American Legion on Wednesday launched a national campaign to combat. “For those called into active service, the American Legion will offset your salary against gross compensation received from the military,” National Cmdr. Richard J. Santos pledged in a letter to his employees.

Santos said the Legion has urged industry leaders to follow suit.

So far, employers appear to be supportive of reservists being called to active duty, even if they aren’t making up the difference in pay, Santos and others said. When called up, reservists get paid at the same rate as active duty soldiers.

California National Guard Capt. Ross DuClair, chief engineer at four Sacramento-area radio stations, said he was especially moved by his colleagues’ support and good wishes.

“It’s almost embarrassing,” he said. “I went out recently with a couple of co-workers, and they wouldn’t let me pay for any of the drinks.”

Strangers are equally giving, as Durgin and his new bride, Gina, discovered. A mover and two wedding photographers offered their services free of charge when they found out the couple had to reschedule their wedding.

Family support will also be key to keeping reservists’ spirits up, said Robin Umberg, who was called to duty during Desert Storm.

During Desert Storm, “every mother was in this turmoil, in this dichotomy,” said Umberg, whose three children were younger than 8 at the time. “We were trained, we were patriots and yet we asked, ‘Do we have misplaced priorities?’ ”

Seeing Erin, then a second-grader, on CNN telling the world that “Dad can’t do French braids and we have hot dog soup every night,” only added to her doubts, Umberg recalled.

Durgin’s wife, meanwhile, said she hasn’t let herself think about his departure.

Durgin said they had moved their wedding date up from Dec. 8 to Saturday.

She managed to squeeze in a few hours last week to buy a black Chihuahua puppy for her beau and some accessories for her bridal dress.

Durgin, in turn, bought her a teddy bear in an Army uniform “to hold at night when I’m not here.”