By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Another Everett man has been called into action with the Air Force Reserves and will head off soon to a "classified location" in support of the war on terrorism.
The Air Force announced Wednesday that 20 more reservists from Washington had been activated, bringing the statewide total to 99 so far. The number of Naval reservists is much higher — 461 statewide, 72 of whom are from Snohomish County.
Glenn, who asked that his last name not be used for security reasons, is a delivery driver in Everett with two teen-age daughters.
For the past six years, he’s also worked in the reserves loading and unloading cargo or passenger airplanes as a technical sergeant with the 446th Airlift Wing based at McChord Air Force Base.
The call he got a week ago didn’t surprise him, Glenn said Wednesday in a telephone interview from a Tacoma hotel room.
But he also wasn’t surprised that he had to wait nearly three months to be called up, he said. "With the military, you don’t just rush in and do things nowadays. Everything has to be planned."
Small numbers of reservists are still being called up and processed every week, said Air Force Staff Sgt. Heather Hanson, a McChord spokeswoman, and Navy Cmdr. John Croce with the Reserve Readiness Command, based in Everett.
The nationwide total, among all the services, stood at 56,664 on Wednesday.
Hanson said this deployment differs from the one during the Persian Gulf War.
"Desert Storm was kind of a grab-your-guns, mass deployment kind of thing. This seems like it’s being done in a slower, more thought-out manner," Hanson said.
Where Glenn is headed and when is classified information, but he said it’s winter "over there," so he’s preparing for cold weather.
Glenn made other living arrangements in Everett for his daughters during his absence, which he says could last up to a year, and he’s looking forward to e-mail contact with them and the once-a-week phone calls he’ll be allowed to make.
His daughters have been supportive of his decision to rejoin the military, Glenn said, and he plans to stay in until he retires.
"I missed it, really," he said of his reasons for signing up again in 1995. "There’s a difference. Military is structured and everyone lives by the same rules. It’s much more loose in civilian life. I missed the camaraderie, too.
"And I grew up watching John Wayne. I believe you have a duty to defend your country."
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 425-339-3439
or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.
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