National Guard Losing Members

National Guard Losing Members
ABCNews.com
March 23, 2004

When Patty Burdick took her daughter Abigail to the post office to mail some brownies to her dad in Iraq, the 4-year-old asked a question that tugged at her mother's heart.

"Can you put me in the box and mail me to Dad?" the girl asked.

That's the kind of question that is prompting many of the men and women who serve in the National Guard and the reserves to have second thoughts.

They used to be known as weekend warriors, but today they have been promoted to full time.

"Ten years ago, the thought that a National Guardsman or woman would be leaving their home state every few years for long-term deployments was inconceivable," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "Today it's a reality."

No Longer a Soft Option

Back in the late 1960s and early '70s, some people joined the National Guard to avoid the military draft with the hopes that it would keep them out of Vietnam. Of 2.5 million Americans who served in Vietnam, fewer than 25,000 - 1 percent - were in the National Guard. Of 58,000 GIs killed in Vietnam, about 100 were in the National Guard. That's about 0.2 percent.

But today, nearly half of the military are National Guard and reservists, and joining the National Guard is no longer a way of staying out of war. One out of every four soldiers in Iraq today is a National Guardsman, and nearly 10 percent of the U.S. troops who have died since last year's invasion were from National Guard units. When the present rotation of forces is complete, roughly 40 percent of the American soldiers in Iraq will be reserve soldiers or guardsmen.

And there's no end in sight. "This is a long-term effort, [in] both Iraq and Afghanistan," Reed said. "The National Guard will be called upon again and again."

Burdick's husband, Tom, has served in the Rhode Island National Guard for 22 years. In the first Gulf War, he spent six months in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait - but that was before the birth of the couple's triplets, Abigail, Joseph and Thomas Jr. Now, Patty Burdick wants her husband back home for good. And she's getting her wish: Tom Burdick will retire as soon as the Guard allows it.

Recruitment Numbers Down

The Burdicks are facing the same questions as many National Guard and reserve families: How do we deal with this new world of more frequent and much longer deployments? And do we want to deal with it all anymore?

More and more families are making the same choice as the Burdicks. Sandra Tancrede, a specialist with the Marine Reserves, said she loves the military and would choose to continue with it if not for her children. A single mother, she said staying in the reserves would be "a tough decision because of the deployment issue." She is leaning toward quitting.

Not only are National Guard units losing personnel they already have, they are finding it harder to attract new recruits.

Maj. Richard Kaley, a recruiter for the Rhode Island National Guard, reports that ever since October the stream of Rhode Islanders signing up for the Guard has slowed. "We're about 25 percent off for the first quarter," he told Nightline.

Almost everyone Nightline talked to agreed it was the announcement in September that guardsmen would serve a full year in Iraq that has affected both recruitment and re-enlistment.

Not since World War II have National Guard personnel been deployed for more than six months at a time. The one-year deployment to Iraq can, with training and mustering out, take a soldier away from his or her home, family and job for up to a year and a half. It is that burden that seems to be slowing recruitment, and once soliders are given the option, threatens to cut the rate of re-enlistment.

For a Pentagon more reliant than any in history on the National Guard and reserves, these are very serious issues. At home, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, even after a difficult 2003, the hardest days may lie ahead.