National Public Radio (NPR) December 4, 2003
Refusal by some reservists to be deployed back to the Middle East following a short time back in the US
ANCHORS: MICHELE NORRIS
REPORTERS: BRIAN MANN
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
The Pentagon is preparing to send more members of the National Guard and reserves overseas, but some of those troops are refusing to go. One reserve officer in Rochester, New York, has protested publicly, and it's gotten him in trouble. From North Country Public Radio, Brian Mann reports.
BRIAN MANN reporting:
Captain Steve McAlpin has been in the Army and the Army Reserves for 25 years. A 44-year-old teacher, McAlpin came home just 11 months ago from a tour in Afghanistan where he acted as a liaison to local warlords. When the commander of the 401st Civil Affairs Battalion announced that the reserve unit was slated for another overseas deployment, this time in Iraq, McAlpin protested publicly. Military officials have since instructed McAlpin not to discuss operational issues with the media. But McAlpin told WOKR-TV in Rochester that the new deployment was too much too soon.
Captain STEVE McALPIN (US Army Reserves): I asked my brigade commander in an open forum questions about sending these soldiers in again, and he said that he had permission to send these soldiers again.
MANN: Army policy states that reserve soldiers should have a full year of civilian downtime between deployments. McAlpin claimed that members of the 401st were pressured to volunteer for active duty after only 10 months.
Capt. McALPIN: Soldiers at my unit said to me, 'I don't want to go unless I have to. I want to go back to college. I want to establish this relationship back with my family.' And they've already gone and served their country in combat and they've earned the right to get on with their lives right now.
MANN: A spokesperson for the 401st denies that soldiers were pressured to accept an early deployment. But the battalion confirms that an unspecified number of reservists who've volunteered for service in Iraq have now been allowed to stay behind. According to a report published in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, at least 13 other soldiers transferred out of the 401st to avoid the deployment. A battalion spokesperson would only confirm that several members of the unit have transferred for personal reasons.
When Captain McAlpin himself refused to sign the volunteer form, his superior officer issued a memo removing him from the battle roster, citing, quote, "your negative attitude toward the assigned mission and your insubordination towards the leadership." Under a deal struck yesterday, McAlpin will continue to train with the 401st, but he won't be deployed overseas.
This kind of public rupture is uncommon, but even some in the military say the strain on National Guard and reserve troops is building. Steve Stromvall is spokesman for the Army Reserves.
Mr. STEVE STROMVALL (Spokesman, US Army Reserves): I'm sure that some people who've spent a year over there would rather not go again. But you know, we recognize that it's a hardship and it's something that we're working real hard to overcome.
MANN: Stromvall says the Army's goal is to give reservists five full years between deployments. For military police and civil affairs units, like the 401st in Rochester, that cycle has dropped to a year or even less.
Mr. STROMVALL: We do not necessarily have all of the correct types of units and the correct numbers to support the global war on terrorism. So there are specialized units where most of those types of units are only in the Army Reserve and we're having to go back in some cases and mobilize people quicker than that.
MANN: The National Guard and the reserves have different policies for activating personnel, but there's growing concern that this practice, known as double tapping, will hurt recruitment and re-enlistment. The Army National Guard's numbers are holding steady, but the Army Reserve's fell 6 percent below their retention goal this year; losing about a thousand soldiers. John Pike, an analyst with Global Security, a security and defense consulting firm, says the trend could grow as thousands of men and women come home from overseas eager to avoid a return trip.
Mr. JOHN PIKE (Analyst, Global Security): The Guard and reserve units were basically put together under the assumption that mobilizations would be infrequent and short. What has happened, in fact, is that they are frequently mobilized for long durations. And over the next couple of years, they're going to have to be redesigned to face these new realties.
MANN: With more than 164,000 Guard and reserve members now activated, military officials say they're working hard to ease deployment schedules. They point out that some requests from Iraq and Afghanistan for certain type reserve units have actually been denied in an effort to slow the rotation of civilians back into active duty. According to the Department of Defense, four Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers have died in Iraq in the last two weeks. For NPR News, I'm Brian Mann.
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