Friday, September 19, 2003
Homecoming hopes turn to despair
By JEN FISH , Portland Press Herald Writer
After a year of worrying and waiting, Nancy Durst started smiling again.
Her husband, Scott, is an Army reserve staff sergeant with the 94th
Military Police Company currently stationed in Iraq. The unit was
scheduled to come home in November, but due to a new order issued by the
Army last week, that homecoming could be delayed until April.
"I really felt he was coming home," Durst said. "He had shipped a box of
his things home. Now I feel like the rug's been pulled out from under me."
The new deployment policy handed down by the Army requires that reserve
and National Guard units serve 12 months from the date they arrive in
country, instead of when they were deployed.
According to the Department of Defense, 24 Maine Reserve and National
Guard units from the various branches of the military have been placed
on active duty.
There has been no official confirmation that the 94th will not be sent
home on time, according to Eric Hurwitz, public affairs specialist for
the 94th Regional Readiness Command in Massachusetts.
"We are still awaiting word," he said. "That policy is capability
dependent - if there is a need for them to be extended, then they will
be. If not, then they will be released. There's really no way to know."
But family members say that all the signs are pointing to six or seven
more months of waiting.
The 94th, which is partially based in Saco, received its deployment
orders in November, trained for one month in the states, and waited at
Fort Drum in New York until April before landing in Iraq. But because
the unit has not had any leave time, it was scheduled to come home
sometime in November, family members said.
A combat MP unit, the 94th is trained to keep supply lines secure and
ensure the safety of other military units, a crucial responsibility in
postwar Iraq.
Jennifer Stegeman, whose husband, Rick, is also a staff sergeant in the
94th, said she expects the unit will be asked to stay.
"I just kind of had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that they may be
gone longer," she said.
Drawing on experience gained when her husband was an active duty soldier
for eight years, Stegeman said she is accustomed to the military
changing the rules.
She, too, received a box from her husband Wednesday, and will send it
back to him this week.
Durst and Stegeman want it made clear they support their husbands and
their comrades 100 percent. But at the same time, they are concerned
about an extended stay for a unit that was shipped to Iraq just 18
months after spending nine months in Bosnia.
"I miss him," Stegeman said of her husband. "He's been gone more as a
reservist than when he was active duty."
Since arriving in Iraq, Durst said, the unit has not had a day off.
"That's putting them at risk, in my opinion," she said. "They're
overtired, their morale is very low. I think they are definitely
overusing and overextending these units."
Durst is planning to meet with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, this
weekend.
Collins' spokeswoman Elissa Canlas said the senator has been in close
contact with many families.
"She understands the hardship the soldiers and their families are going
through," Canlas said. "The senator is going to do what she can do to
help them through this."
In the meantime, Stegeman said she is going to continue work on the
house she and Rick bought in Dayton in between deployments to Bosnia and
Iraq.
"We moved a lot when he was active duty," she said. "I was anxious and
excited at the prospect at settling down. We're supposed to be enjoying
this time together, but I understand my husband has a job to do and
he'll be sent home when the job's done."
http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/030919reserves.shtml
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