In Afghanistan, Reservists’ Duties Expand

BAGRAM, Afghanistan —  He can handle the monotony, deal with the heat and dust, and dodge the scorpions and bloodsucking camel spiders. It’s the uncertainty that bothers Maj. Valvincent Reyes.

Reyes, an Army reservist who is a Los Angeles County probation officer in civilian life, was activated in June and feels proud of his role in the war effort here--screening soldiers for combat-related stress disorders.

But Reyes doesn’t know when he’ll be reunited with his wife and three children in Torrance. He’s already missed three birthdays and may be absent for his older daughter’s high school graduation in the spring.

“In the back of our minds--we know we’re always helping others, and we’re wondering who is going to help us,” said Reyes, who is attached to the Army Reserve’s 113th Medical Company. “Our families want to know more about our length of time here.”

When they joined the reserves, most of the men and women here did not expect that they would be sent thousands of miles away for as long as two years. But in today’s era of a slimmed-down military and greater global commitments, middle-aged and middle-class Americans increasingly are being separated from spouses and children for extended overseas duty. They often serve longer abroad than full-time soldiers.

Reyes’ concerns are typical among the 2,000 activated reservists and National Guard troops serving at this wind-blown military base in the desert north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Though proud to be serving, they fret over family, finances, jobs and the length of their tour.

By filling support functions, reservists do more than grease the wheels of the base machinery. They are its wheels. Reserve units sort mail, treat and transport the wounded, build barracks and arrange the installation’s complex supply logistics. All told, reservists represent about a quarter of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

It’s not that reservists are surprised to have been called up. Given the military’s increased reliance on its 1.25 million reservists, many knew that it was just a matter of time. A possible U.S. military campaign against Iraq has only increased the odds.

“Reserves are now 80% of the medical assets of the U.S. Army,” Reyes said, “so we were primed to come after 9/11. We knew we’d be called up.”

What they didn’t know was for how long.

“I came thinking I’d be here only six months, and now I’ll probably be extended,” said Sgt. Ricardo Ramirez of La Puente, who arrived in Afghanistan on July 11. His 109th Army Veterinarian unit tests food for possible spoilage and cares for bomb-sniffing dogs. Ramirez said the uncertainty sometimes causes his girlfriend back home to cry when they talk on the phone.

He hasn’t even told his mother that he is in Afghanistan. She thinks he’s elsewhere in the region.

Whether in war or peacetime, reservists said, when they’ve been called up it has usually been for an average of about 6 1/2 months.

But in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon has invoked rules that permit it to keep reservists on active duty for as long as two years, and the individual services have begun invoking that option.

Sgt. Jason Clifford of Atlanta, part of the 310th Chemical Company, was called up last Oct. 10 and has recently received notification that he has been extended for a second year.

“When I signed up, I thought, well, the most I’ll do if there is a war is six or seven months,” he said. “But I never planned on two years.”

The military’s reliance on part-time forces has been increasing since the late 1980s, when Pentagon planners foresaw tighter budgets after the Cold War ended. The total of reserve and guard units is now not much less than the 1.4 million full-time soldiers.

The military may be risking losing reservists by stretching their active-duty stints--and their patience, said Jay Farrar, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He said reenlistment data he has seen suggest that reservists are already leaving the ranks because of the added time commitment. The U.S. military can ill afford losing reservists. Despite their “weekend warrior” image, Farrar said, reserve units are consistently more efficient and cohesive than the regulars.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking said this month that each of the reserve branches is on track to meet its enlistment goals.

Many reservists, including Reyes, suffer no financial hardship because their employers keep their jobs open and make up the difference between their civilian and military wages.

Spc. 4 Nikki Prodromos of the 300th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment is not so lucky. She had to shut down her cleaning business, give up an apartment she loved and put her possessions in storage--an expense the Army won’t reimburse.

“I hated letting my employees go. Good ones are hard to find. And I’m now making a third as much as I did with my business,” said Prodromos, who is divorced and lives in Atlanta.

But the situation cuts both ways. For Ramirez, being called up was a windfall. He had just been laid off from his industrial painting job when he was activated. And he thinks that his service in Bagram will help him find a job when he gets out.

For those with families back home, the time away can be agonizing. Maj. William Hensell of Phoenix, a 28-year veteran of the reserves, had never been called up. Neither had his father, who spent 38 years in the Army Reserve. But here the younger Hensell is, helping manage supplies with his unit, the 164th Corps Support Group.

“The distance, the lack of communication, leaving my wife alone are the toughest parts, not being able to help her do the things you take for granted, like mowing the yard and taking out the laundry,” he said.

In addition to her three children and her job as a hospital social worker, Sgt. Valencia Knox-Davis, a 19-year veteran of the Army Reserve’s 834th Postal Company based in Miami, misses the little things: sitting on her front porch, eating junk food and watching football on TV. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it,” she said of life in Afghanistan. “It’s rough. The dust especially. It’s like talcum powder that goes everywhere when you step in it.”

And yet, for some reservists like Robert Kanyr of Sierra Madre, a father of two college-age children, there’s no better place to be. The longtime California Highway Patrol officer said that he relishes active duty and that his wife, Laurie, understands.

“It’s the most gratifying thing I’ve done. I have 30 years in the reserves and feel privileged that I’m still healthy and able to do it,” said Kanyr, a master sergeant in the 146th Aeromed Evacuation Squadron of the Air National Guard. “Apart from the dust, life is good.”