Citizen soldiers are the bulwark of our democracy, not only guarding the ramparts of freedom but also serving with special devotion in their civic roles.
Today, we’d like to salute two such citizen soldiers. One is state Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, who returned to his legislative duties Monday after serving his third tour of duty in Iraq. Rice is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.
He’ll be joined next week by another reservist/lawmaker when Marine Col. Steve Ward, a Republican, returns to represent Littleton in the state Senate. Ward also has served three tours of duty since the Sept. 11 attacks, most recently in Iraq.
Coloradans owe both men a debt of gratitude for their personal and financial sacrifices, as well as the very real personal risk they faced in a war with no real front lines and no safe rear echelon. But Ward and Rice would be the first to say that their sacrifices are no greater than that of the thousands of men and women in our reserves or National Guard who similarly answer their country’s call.
And that’s precisely the problem.
The fact is those calls to serve their country are coming too frequently for the long-term health of our reserves. During most of the Cold War, the standing army augmented with draftees did the main job of defending America. The Reserves were mainly a standby force in the event a major war broke out between NATO and the former Warsaw Pact. National Guard units also knew they would have to fight in a major war, but otherwise expected just short-term duty in such emergencies as floods and hurricanes.
It was fairly easy to have a normal family life and career around such a one-weekend-a-month training schedule. But today’s multiple call-ups lasting a year or longer are disrupting family life and career opportunities — prompting many Guard members and reservists to leave their posts.
Congress needs to take several steps to protect our vital stand-by forces, including reducing the load on our reserves by adding to our standing Army and buttressing the benefits offered to both our full-time and citizen soldiers. But perhaps the most important part of all is for employers to continue to support the citizen soldiers who support America. There are laws requiring that citizen soldiers get their jobs back when they return from active duty, as Rice and Ward did. But as Rice notes, such laws can’t really stop an employer from failing to hire or promote reservists out of fear that they’ll be called to active duty.
In our view, hiring and promoting citizen soldiers is both high patriotism and self-interest. Americans proudly support the men and women who sacrifice for us all. But it’s also good business if these dedicated men and women bring the same high character and devotion to duty to their civilian jobs that they bring to serving our country.
