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thedrifter
02-06-03, 05:31 PM
Article ran : 02/06/2003
Reservists also face uncertainty
By ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF

As world leaders ponder a war with Iraq, there are many unknowns for military troops, even those who are not going overseas.



Among them are more than 2,000 Marine Corps and Navy reservists who have come to Camp Lejeune and New River Air Station to fill in for those who have been deployed.



“It is very difficult because we don’t know where we are going, what we will do, how long we’ll be gone or possibly even why we were called,” said 46-year old Navy Cmdr. Peter Rustico, a minister who bid farewell to a 500-person congregation last week at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Middleton, N.Y., to serve as a chaplain.



Rustico is working with the II Marine Expeditionary Force Augmentation Command Element, or II MACE, which includes nearly 200 Marines and sailors who are specialists in areas of administration, intelligence, operations, logistics, planning and communications.



Mobilization of the reserves is decidedly different than active duty deployments because the full-timers know that they will deploy an average of about every three to six months, Rustico said.



Lance Cpl. Nicole Payton, 21, a nursing student from Eveleth, Minn., is a single parent who had to leave her 14-month old son, Ian, with her parents in Minnesota.



“The hardest part is leaving my son and being 1,600 miles apart,” said Payton, a truck driver assigned to the logistics section of II MACE. “He’s so young that I can’t talk to him to explain.”



Others have to deal with schedules that change.



Sgt. Nora Kelly, 28, an intelligence specialist from Raleigh recently moved to Greenville to attend East Carolina University next semester.



“I was going to leave (today), and now I’m extended for one year with the possibility of an extension for another year,” Kelly said.



She put her school and wedding plans on hold, but says that the uncertainty and the commute from Greenville are the most difficult parts.



“I have to leave between 4:30 and 5 a.m. and sit in traffic for an hour to get in the gate,” Kelly said.



For others, getting the call is no problem.



Cpl. Jon Williams, 27, was an amphibian assault vehicle mechanic from 1994 to 1998 and worked at an auto shop in Stephenville, Texas, until he moved his wife and children to Jacksonville.



He now works as a Marine air ground task force planner and says it feels good to be back in the saddle.



“It’s nothing new,” he said. “My first four years in the Marine Corps pretty much prepared me for this.”




Contact Eric Steinkopff at estein kopff@jdnews.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236


Sempers,

Roger