Reply #20: More families broken is exactly right. [View All]

[lebkuchen]

I’m tired of all the active-duty military members telling all the guardsmen and reservists to suck it up and that we signed up for this.

No, we didn’t sign up for this. When I signed my contract to join the National Guard, I was fully aware that I stood the chance of being federally activated. But I don’t remember reading anywhere in my contract about back-to-back deployments for more than two years. I also don’t recall reading in my contract that being a guardsman or reservist subjects one to fewer morale supplies, simple military supplies, halfway updated equipment, and doing without basic necessities that active-duty components such as the 1st Armored Division, 3rd Infantry Division, and 4th Infantry Division are privy to.

We joined the Reserve and National Guard to be part time. Six-month and maybe even one-year deployments are acceptable for a part-time force. But deployments of more than a year are definitely not, especially when there are many active-duty units that have yet to deploy since Sept. 11, 2001.

For both of my unit’s deployments, we were called up and out of the state within a week. I twice left my house, family, career, school, and everything else in my life and placed the burden on the people around me. I’ve lost more money in the last two years than most soldiers make in two years.

Readers should picture their salaries being cut in half with their bills remaining the same. Thank God I don’t have children. I can’t even begin to fathom the difficulties that kids would bring.

Active-duty personnel signed up for this to be their sole, full-time occupation and life. Maybe they should deal with the fact that guardsmen and reservists are tired of picking up their slack. We have earned every right to complain.

Spc. Rustun K. Schack
Camp Caldwell, Iraq

http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=17635