Since Sept. 11, More Are in Active Service
by Christian Davenport, Washington Post
Michael Jr. won’t eat McDonald’s kids’ meals anymore or play with his old toys -- those, he now says, are for babies. As for Mekhi, he likes eggs for breakfast but will eat them only if you play “Toy Story II” in the VCR. He’s also self-conscious about learning to go on the potty, so don’t worry if he won’t let anyone in the bathroom with him.
Normally, Mary Hayes would not have to brief her husband on the particulars of their children’s lives. But Michael Hayes Sr., an Army reservist who was called up after the Sept. 11 attacks, has been away for eight months at a base in Texas. When he returned to their home on the Fort Meade Army base last week on a two-week pass, she had to reintroduce him to his children, Michael Jr., 8, and Mekhi, 2, who have grown so much since he’s been gone.
“It’s kind of odd because this is their dad,” she said. “It’s like informing a stranger or a babysitter.”
It’s been almost nine months since the terrorist attacks prompted President Bush to call up one of the largest contingents of military reservists since the Vietnam War. Now, more than 80,000 reservists and National Guard members nationwide have been put on active duty, patrolling military bases, flying missions over foreign lands or engaging in special operations the military won’t disclose. In the District, Maryland and Virginia, 4,347 reservists are on active duty, according to Department of Defense figures.
If they were eager to serve soon after the attacks in New York and Washington, now, several months into tours that could last as long as two years, many also are anxious to get home. They’ve missed birthdays, first steps and first words, the highlights of fleeting childhoods. And while many say they are happy to serve their country, they are beginning to wonder how much longer their tours will last.
“I get a lot of teary eyes in my office,” said Capt. Jonathan Bennett, who is in charge of Hayes’s unit, which is securing an Army base. “It’s not that they’re not tough and ready to accept their responsibilities. But it’s hard. We’ve been away for almost nine months. When wives get sick or someone in the family dies, it’s hard to be away.”
In his division, like others, life goes on; soldiers get divorced, have babies. And as the time stretches out, rumors are spreading about when they might be relieved.
Word spread that the troops would be home by Christmas, then spring. “Now we’re hoping for the one-year anniversary,” Bennett said. That would mean they’d be home by October.
The law says the military can keep up to 1 million reservists on duty for up to two years, said Army Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking, a Pentagon spokesman. There are 1.25 million reservists nationwide. “But, anecdotally, I know most of them have been called up on one-year notices with the flexibility to be shortened or extended,” he said.
With the nation on alert as White House officials warn that another terrorist attack is inevitable, many reservists fear it will be the latter.
“Everybody’s talking about how it’s going to be a year,” said Sgt. 1st Class Avery Briscoe of Columbia, who is also stationed in Texas. “But I’ve been in the military long enough to know that until you see it in black and white, nothing is for sure.”
Many of the thousands of troops assigned to securing 422 of the nation’s commercial airports have completed their tours. And by the end of the month, when security will be turned over to local law enforcement and the federal screeners requested by Congress, there won’t be any more soldiers in the airports.
The National Guard soldiers who were at Washington’s three major airports are already gone.
“It was originally conceived by the president as a temporary mission until it was put under control of a permanent body,” said Mark Allen, spokesman for the National Guard Bureau. “The National Guard responds to national emergencies that are of short duration. These are all civilians who are serving in a part-time capacity.”
And so instead of patrolling Dulles International Airport in his camouflage uniform with an M-16 over his shoulder, Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Godfrey has returned to Northern Virginia Community College, where he teaches a class in automotive technology. After months of active duty, which included a 33-day stint at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he is spending much more time at his Prince William County home with his two children, ages 9 and 3.
Although he’ll miss the passengers who thanked him and his fellow soldiers as they patrolled the airport, he was glad to finally return to his old routine last week -- without the worry of being called in for duty at a moment’s notice.
His wife is also relieved. “She’s totally against me being in the guard and being away from my kids,” he said.
Briscoe said he misses “the little things” about being away from home: hitting golf balls or shooting baskets with his 5-year-old son, watching his 8-year-old daughter show off new pieces of jewelry.
His daughter’s birthday party at a roller-skating rink last month was held a week early so he wouldn’t miss it. But he couldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
At the Aberdeen Army base where he’s stationed, Briscoe said, “morale is up and down. Summertime is here. Families are planning vacations, and they are thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to miss that.’ ”
When he is home on leave, as he was last week, Briscoe said it takes at least a day to adjust back to civilian life. “I’ll get up at 4 in the morning because I’ve gotten used to not sleeping much,” he said. “And my wife will be like, ‘What are you doing?’ ”
Mary Hayes sensed similar changes in her husband. But there was something else. It wasn’t just that he had lost weight, or that his hair was cut short -- that always happens when he leads his soldier life.
What bothered her was a pair of sweat pants he had bought while he was away. They were the fancy kind, with multicolored stitching.
“Are these yours?” she asked him when she saw them in his military duffle bag.
She usually buys his clothes and thought she had a pretty good sense of his taste. But she never would have bought him those sweat pants. They seemed so unlike him.
“I feel like I’m married to a stranger,” Mary Hayes said. “It’s like getting to know him all over again. What makes it worse is that in two weeks he’ll be leaving. And we’ll have to do this all over again.”