Penn State Digital Collegian January 14, 2005
Military members believe overseas extension will not affect PSU
By Stephanie Liberatore
If a policy limiting the mobilization of U.S. Army reservists and the National Guard to 24 months overseas is extended, Joe Peterson may not see two of his best friends from home for a while.
"It's scary as hell because they were supposed to be there for a year, and now it's almost two," he said.
Peterson (freshman-landscape contracting) said both of his friends from home are currently training for duty in Iraq with the 101st Army National Guard.
"No soldier will be involuntarily mobilized for more than 24 months under currently policy," said Capt. Cory Angell, spokesman for the Pennsylvania National Guard. "But they can volunteer to serve for longer."
There are about 15,000 Pennsylvania national guardsmen, about 300 of whom are Penn State students, said Maj. William Lloyd, recruiting operations officer for Penn State Army ROTC. The last call to duty included about 2,200 from the Pennsylvania National Guard.
"We've lost very few students to deployment," Lloyd said. "In the fall of 2004, 44 students were mobilized, only two of which were ROTC students who were also members of the National Guard."
Lt. Col. Dan Miltenberger, executive officer of the Army ROTC battalion, said a policy change would probably not significantly affect the Penn State community.
"When you look at the entire population of 41,000 students, maybe 100 [of them] would be affected," he said.
About 40 percent of the estimated 150,000 troops in Iraq are Army reservists and national guardsmen, according to www.globalsecurity.org.
An ROTC student can only be deployed if the student is in the Guard or Reserve and is not contracted, Lloyd said.
But contracted guardsmen and reservists in ROTC cannot be deployed.
Political science professor Scott Bennett said a policy change might impact Guard recruitment.
"Recruitment is [already] down 30 percent for the Guard. ... It's likely that this is just going to further exacerbate that," Bennet said.
Lloyd said he does not believe this change will take place, but he cited a few reasons for the large demand for reserves in Iraq.
"These troops have been trained. This is what they do. ... Because of military cutbacks ... they have to offset the demand with reserves and guardsmen," he said.
Capt. William Moore II, State College company commander for the U.S. Army, said that concurrent operations in other countries also contribute to the need for Reserve forces.
"This is actually how it [the Reserve] was designed. It was designed for them [the government] to use it in times like this, when there's actually a consistent need," Moore said.
But Navy ROTC Chad Workman (sophomore-information sciences and technology) said he does not think the change would have a significant impact in the State College area if the time limit were extended.
"It's my understanding, as far as the Navy and Marine side goes, that we are not worried about [being deployed] because we can't be deployed while we're in school," Workman said.
Angell added the policy change would most likely only affect soldiers who have already been deployed to other countries.
"We've had a significant amount of missions. If we were to keep up at that pace, if we're needed at the same rate as in the past, that's probably why they're looking at [this policy]," Angell said.
© Copyright 2005, Collegian Inc.
