Yes They Will

During the years following Viet Nam, I enlisted in the Army Reserves. The unit I was in was a “direct deploying” unit. That meant we had to be ready to deploy within 48 hours of notification. We were ready. There would be no pre-deployment training; just pick up and go.

We already had our “green” ID cards in our deployment personnel file along with ID cards for our spouses. The Army had already drawn up power of attorney documents which only needed to be signed at the time of deployment. The Army had already drawn up each person’s will and had it ready for signature. Single parents already had legal documents on hand to provide for the care of their children.

Our physicals were yearly rather than every four years. We all had our immunizations up-to-date and the full mouth x-rays needed for identification purposes(This was pre-dna days).

We stayed current in our training with regular briefings on our mission destination and potential conflict scenarios. Since we were a command unit, we wrote war plans covering every potential scenario and updated them with regularity. Our unit had a permanently based forward unit stationed in our deployment country with all the supplies needed, sans weapons and personal gear, in case we arrived on short notice.

As part of our training we regularly received practice alert calls where we were expected to leave work, grab our gear and head to the armory for further orders. But one thing was never completely tested. We never deployed directly to our area of operations as part of the alert. Yes, we would report to the armory, we would pack and inventory everything we needed and be transported to the Air National Guard base in Jackson where everything and everyone would be loaded into the planes. The planes would actually take off and fly around for a while then would land back in Jackson where we would deploy and return to our home armory.

There was always a lingering question as to whether or not, when reality struck, all the troops would be willing to deploy. It was a question we never answered during my tenure with the Army Reserve. We always assumed we would lose a small percentage upon actual deployment.

No longer is that a lingering question. Our Guard and Reserves have been repeatedly called upon to shore up our troops in the middle east. Perhaps a few directly deployed at the initial stages. But I have not heard of any significant numbers of “non-deployables”. I applaud the young people currently serving our country in the military forces. I know they have the guts and determination to do what is asked of them. And I thank them for continuing to give unselfishly of themselves for this great country of ours.