Soon after last week’s terrorist attacks, Chicago firefighter Shawn LaFleur packed two bags: one for his Naval Reserve uniform, the other for a uniform to wear if dispatched by the city to assist in rescue operations in New York.
Both have gone untouched, but LaFleur and thousands of Illinois members of National Guard and Reserve units find themselves in limbo. They’re wondering whether to go on with their everyday lives or put everything on hold in anticipation of being called to participate in the Bush administration’s military buildup.
“It’s very frustrating,” said LaFleur, 34, a member of a cargo-handling unit based at Great Lakes Naval Training Center near North Chicago. “I’ve been trained all my adult life to take action when action is needed, and then I had to stand around and wait.”
That uncertainty is playing out in living rooms across the state. The Pentagon has mobilized 5,131 Air Guard and Reserve members from across the nation, but only 100 from Illinois. They are assigned to the Illinois National Guard’s 183rd Fighter Wing based in Springfield. Meanwhile, thousands more Guard and Reserve members are preparing for lives that can take drastic turns at a moment’s notice.
Even before the terrorist attacks, LaFleur and his wife, Dawn, talked about the possibility of his being called up and the difficulties that might cause. They have a 1-year-old child and a baby on the way.
In recent days, LaFleur said he has wondered where he has stashed his will and power-of-attorney documents. “It weighs on me,” he said.
“I think about it all the time.”
If he does get activated, “there’s going to be a lot of tears and a lot of crying on both our parts,” LaFleur said.
“There’s obviously a thrill and excitement for me, but then there’s the separation and sadness. And for her it’s all just sadness.”
Sgt. Greta Bell, 34, who works full time in the U.S. Army Reserve in Springfield and spent eight months overseas during the Bosnian conflict, said her three children have been asking whether she might again be sent overseas. “I couldn’t tell them where I was going or what I was doing because at this time I don’t know,” said Bell, who has two girls ages 14 and 7 and a 13-year-old boy.
“I tried to reassure them that there’s a possibility that I might not go.”
Even so, Bell said her children still pepper her with a lot of “what ifs.”
Public officials tried to ease a few of the financial worries Thursday. Gov. George Ryan issued an executive order to ensure that no state worker in his administration would have to take a cut in pay or benefits if mobilized.
The Chicago City Council and Cook County Board also approved measures guaranteeing pay and benefits for any city and county workers called to active duty.
Mark Jenkins, 40, of Chicago, a commander in the Naval Reserve and member of a combat construction unit stationed at Great Lakes, said his family has been prepared since the day of the attack for the possibility that he may be called up.
“When the whole thing started, my wife turned to me and said, `You may be leaving us soon.’ I just said, `Yes, that may happen. And when it does we’ll just deal with it,'” Jenkins said.
Jenkins, an Illinois Department of Transportation civil engineer responsible for maintaining Chicago-area expressways, said he lives knowing he may be shipped to the far reaches of the earth.
During the buildup to the Gulf War, Jenkins was given three days to report to an unfamiliar unit in Ohio and then was stationed for four months in Spain working as an engineer with a cargo-handling battalion in charge of repositioning ammunition.
“They said pack your things and you will be gone for up to a year,” he said.
“You kind of live your life knowing that’s a possibility. That’s why they pay us once a month, and that’s what we prepare for.”
Despite uncertainty about the future, Guard member Frank LeMaire says he is going about his routine without much worry at the hog farm he runs in Downstate Nokomis south of Springfield.
LeMaire, 36, is assigned to a maintenance company with the Guard and figures such a specialty might be a low priority in any call-up. Even so, he and his wife sat down with their four children, ages 5 to 14, to talk over what might happen if he were activated.
“I told them how they would have to help Mom and support the family and be good,” LeMaire said.
“Stephen, he’s the little gung-ho one, he wanted to know if I would fight.”
LeMaire, a platoon sergeant, is set to attend a regularly scheduled drill this weekend in Springfield and hopes he then will get a better handle on what to expect.
