Reservists

Serving one's country in uniform is an honored tradition. No one contemplated it turning into a financial hardship when the military reserve programs were set up, however. Vast changes in the economy, careers and family life have put some families into the gray area of fiscal jeopardy when their reservist breadwinners are called to duty.One story that probably touched many was Sun reporter Graeme Browning's account of the difficulties faced by the Fallon family after Baltimore City housing policeman Ed Fallon was called to duty in the Persian Gulf.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will end the long-standing prohibition on women serving in direct combat, Pentagon officials said Wednesday, opening hundreds of thousands of military jobs previously closed to female service members. Panetta and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will announce the end of the so-called combat exclusion policy Thursday, officials said. The move is expected to take years to implement fully. Army Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt welcomed the decision.

WESTMINSTER - A Westminster-based Army Reserve unit has been called to serve at least six months of active duty in Texas as a result of the American military operations in the Middle East.Fifteen members of the 195th Army Reserve stationed at the Carroll County Army Reserve Center were notified last Wednesday that they were being activated and were flown to Fort Hood, Texas, Friday morning.The unit's chief warrant officer, Kirk W. Atwood, said the reservists, all specialized mechanics, were mobilized to another unit to help replace a heavy equipment maintenance division participating in the Desert Shield mobilization in Saudi Arabia.

Anne Arundel County Council members on Monday night appointed Marine Reservist Peter I. Smith to a vacant seat on the council, ending a weeks-long impasse that drew fierce criticism from residents. Councilman Richard B. "Dick" Ladd, a Severna Park Republican, broke the deadlock, switching to pick Smith in the 108th round of voting. The council voted 4 to 2 for Smith. "It is with some trepidation that I will change my vote for Mr. Smith," said Ladd, before casting his vote.

WASHINGTON -- Many reserve personnel called to active duty to help fight the Persian Gulf war may not return home until 1992, according to complaints raised by members of Congress.Some reserve units have been redeployed from the Kuwait theater of operations to provide food and shelter at Kurdish refugee camps in northern Iraq."Where are our reservists going to end up next?" asked Rep. Toby Roth, R-Wis., who has introduced a resolution in Congress urging the Defense Department to bring the reservists home quickly.

Imagine being a reservist called to active duty in the Persian Gulf conflict: not only do you face the dangers of war, you still have credit card bills, mortgages and other responsibilities nagging on the home front.With only days to report to duty, some reservists must leave their families holding a bag of loans, leases, insurance policies, mortgages, and credit bills.What to do?Capt. Gregory C. Burkart, chief of the legal assistance division at Aberdeen Proving Ground, says there are two federallaws -- the Veterans Re-employment Rights Act and the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act -- which can help reservists and their families in such situations.

The Naval Reserve members who rescued passengers from the harbor water shuttle that capsized near Fort McHenry two weeks ago will be awarded medals for their quick-thinking heroics. The commanding officer of the Naval Reserve Center in Baltimore said an official ceremony has not been arranged but that he expects a medal service to be held next month when reservists are drilling at the center, which is near Fort McHenry. "Right now we're looking at some time in April," Cmdr. Jim McGovern said.

Joe Hogue, 67, worked as a trust officer at Mercantile Bank for 45 years and said he never really imagined himself as a police officer.But now Hogue puts on a uniform and volunteers 50 hours a month directing traffic and answering phones -- all jobs that help keep paid officers on the street."

Reservists called to active duty and their families immediately face many personal financial problems, most of which must be resolved quickly if the reservist will go overseas.The question that comes to me most frequently is: "What about my company-supplied health and accident insurance? Will I still be covered and will my family still be covered?"Active reservists automatically are covered by the military health plan. They also can enroll their dependents in a separate health plan -- the Civilian Health and Medical Program of Uniform Services (CHAMPUS)

LONDON -- Britain yesterday began drafting military reservists for service in the Persian Gulf after too few responded to a call for volunteers.The move provoked immediate protests from some reservists, who said they enrolled in the part-time military service to defend Britain from external attack, not to fight in a foreign country.In a protest broadcast on the BBC, one reservists asked: "Why should I put my life on the line to defend one dictatorship from another?"A nursing director told Independent Television News she felt "ambiguous" about going to the gulf, reluctant to leave her civilian responsibilities here but ready to fulfill her military role there.

The city's Board of Estimates is poised this week to approve settlements to the family of a man fatally shot in the back by a Baltimore police officer and an Army Reserve captain who said he lost his job with the state's attorney's office after leaving for military training. The family of Edward Lamar Hunt will receive $375,000, an agreement reached in June on the third day of a civil trial in Baltimore Circuit Court. Hunt was shot twice in the back Jan. 30, 2008, while running from Officer Tommy Sanders after being patted down at the Hamilton Park Shopping Center.

A lawyer who joined the U.S. Army Reserve says the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office declined to rehire him after he finished his training - which he alleges is a violation of federal law. Capt. Andrew Gross, 28, of Columbia filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore against the city and the prosecutor's office, claiming the office discriminated against him because of his military service. The suit seeks unspecified damages, back pay and other costs. "It really blows my mind that they did this," said Baltimore-based attorney Steven D. Silverman, who represents Gross.

Most will remember the late William Donald Schaefer as Baltimore's mayor, Maryland's governor, and even the state's comptroller. But, I remember him most as Lt. Col. W.D. Schaefer, my executive officer in the 457th General Hospital and 2290th USA Hospital, reserve units out of Turners Armory. Colonel Schaefer and I managed to transfer out of the 457th (into the new 100th Station Hospital) in 1961 just before the Berlin Wall crisis froze everyone in on active duty and called up about a quarter-million reservists and National Guard troops (including the 457th)

A 25-year-old Johns Hopkins Hospital security officer and former Air Force reservist was fatally shot Monday night in a robbery in the city near the Baltimore County line. The victim, identified as Daniel C. Dixon, was returning to the America's Best Value Inn in the 6500 block of Frankford Ave. about midnight after purchasing items at a nearby gas station when at least three suspects approached and demanded money, according to Anthony Guglielmi, the city Police Department's chief spokesman.

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops and tanks thrust into the Gaza Strip's densely populated capital from three directions yesterday, drawing Hamas fighters into fierce combat in an offensive expanded by a fresh deployment of army reservists. High-rise apartments shook, and smaller, targeted buildings crumbled in Gaza City under the force of Israeli artillery shelling and missiles fired from helicopters. Plumes of black smoke rose as Hamas fighters answered with mortars, automatic rifles and grenades.

Ian Andrew Baggett Jr., a mechanic and Marine Corps reservist, died Saturday at Northwest Hospital Center after being injured in a motorcycle accident near Liberty Reservoir. The Sykesville resident had recently celebrated his 24th birthday. Mr. Baggett was riding his 1993 Harley-Davidson when he collided head-on with a pickup truck that had failed to yield the right of way at Liberty Road and Oakland Mills Road, Maryland State Police said yesterday. Mr. Baggett was taken to the Randallstown hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

WASHINGTON -- Aiming to reduce the strain on active-duty troops, Defense Secretary William J. Perry has approved a plan to use reservists in many peacetime roles now performed by regular forces.Recent military operations in Haiti, Rwanda, Cuba and the Persian Gulf have exposed cracks in the combat readiness of the United States' 1.6-million-member military.With the armed forces shrinking and military commitments likely to remain high in the future, the Defense Department is scrambling to avoid a crisis.

Four-year-old Jackie Topa came to Baltimore to sing some well-rehearsed songs for her father, an Army reservist stationed in Jacksonville, Fla.The songs, she said, were "about Christmas and all that kind of stuff."Nikki Haagenson's children came with the chicken pox. But they also had something better to share with a father spending Christmas so many miles away: a list of what Santa brought.At CSX Railroad's Baltimore headquarters yesterday, a bit of Christmas magic and some high-quality fiber optics helped reunite children with parents, husbands with wives, fathers with sons.

When Navy reservist David Lindsey was called up to go to Iraq, his employer gave him extra vacation time and offered to pay the difference if his military salary was less than his civilian pay. While he was away, his bosses at Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative made sure that he routinely received care packages filled with soup and cans of coffee, which made him the envy of his unit. The company re-shuffled staff to temporarily fill his job during his absence, then promoted him soon after his return in 2005.

He was a fresh-out-of-boot-camp Marine reservist whose friends were as dear to him as family. Early yesterday, Michael LaMaris Simms, 18, put his life on the line for a friend during a vicious attack, action that would lead to his death and make him the city's 134th homicide victim, as well as the second child his mother has lost to violence. Simms' sister, Jerrisha Burton, was stabbed to death in 1998 at age 18. The man who police say killed her was only recently arrested.