I would just like to reinforce that the Guard and Reserve, while working for the same army, are two different organizations. I know that no one intentionally left out the reserves when they were discussing the Guard, but as a retired reserve officer, I would like to point out that the Reserves are also playing a vital role in the war on terror and provide personnel on extended deployments, too.
In December, 2004 I returned from my deployment. It was snowing, my snow blower was broken, and I was beat from long plane rides and 3 days of redeployment briefings. My neighbor two houses down came up with his snow blower and began clearing my sidewalk. My immediate next door neighbor, whom we had considered our very close friend, came out and said something to him which made him stop and turn around and go home. Needless to say, we haven't spoken since. The reason - our "friends" were "born again" and did not support the war. Since I had been deployed, I was part of it and judgement was passed.
Regardless of individual feelings about this war, there are many men and women leaving jobs and families to serve both stateside and overseas. Many of them have the same misgivings about the whole situation as the general public, but they have a greater sense of obligation and serve their country willingly. In my 27 years, I met the most wonderful and dedicated people in the Army. I had the honor to command a lot of them over the last several years of my career. Prior to that, I was privileged to serve as a mobilization officer, offering business and career counseling, family counseling, financial planning, and any other services necessary to prepare soldiers and their families for the hardship of deployment. I have served through far too many wars and limited conflicts. I have been shot at, slept in holes in the ground, survived tropical rainy seasons, and suffered through a variety of diseases and infections I wouldn't care to think about. I have lived in swamps, jungles, deserts, and mountains. I have had both people and animals try to kill me for no other reason than the fact that I was there. Yet despite all this, I served with individuals who managed to find humor in their situation, locate food where there shouldn't have been any, somehow get a TV, DVD player and movies out to the middle of nowhere, share everything they had with anyone, and somehow maintain their morality and sense of compassion. I have seen soldiers transform almost immediately from methodical killers when on patrols to the sensitive fathers they are when they are comforting a strange child with a scraped knee. Now, as a VA employee, I am seeing the true cost of deployment; the physical and mental toll this war and previous ones have taken on human beings. These are scars that we will be treating for many years to come.
Sorry for the tirade. On to other things.
