Thomas Caywood
Boston Herald
13 October 2004
The Massachusetts National Guard has a desperate battle on its hands: recruiting and retaining troops at a time when anyone signing on the dotted line is all but assured a tour in Iraq.
This year alone the Guard lost roughly 800 troops - 9 percent of the force - as many returning Iraq veterans retired or got out as soon as their enlistments ended.
"My unit is already hearing rumors about going back to Iraq next year, and we've only been home for six months. There's no end in sight," said Spc. Danny Pazyra, a National Guard truck driver who plans to hang up his fatigues for good when his hitch is up.
The Massachusetts Guard's ranks have been dwindling for years, but the specter of endless deployments now is driving off experienced guardsmen in droves.
Recruiting has lagged, attrition is soaring, and top brass are scrambling to stop the bleeding before the commonwealth's storied militia wastes away.
"Certainly we are concerned when we start seeing the attrition rate hit a certain point," said Maj. Gen. George Keefe, the Massachusetts Guard's commanding officer.
Nearly a quarter of all Massachusetts guardsmen up for re-enlistment this fiscal year walked away, Guard figures show.
Keefe said the state's force of roughly 8,200 Army and Air National Guard personnel, down from 10,000 just four years ago, is enough to keep up the state's commitments overseas and at home.
But not for long.
"No doubt about it, we've got to stabilize it," Keefe said.
He doesn't have to worry about Sgt. 1st Class Bernard Madore, a platoon sergeant with the 1166th Transportation Co. He re-upped early this year as soon as he got home from a year in Iraq.
"I have 17 years in. I wouldn't want to throw that away, and I really like what I do," said the 35-year-old contractor and father.
But the decision isn't so easy for those with less time invested.
Pazyra, a 22-year-old Quincy college student assigned to the 1058th Transportation Co., enlisted knowing he'd probably get activated eventually. But he didn't bargain on recurring overseas tours of a year or more each.
"I'm trying to get an education. I've been pulled out of school twice now," Pazyra said.
Sgt. Michael Mastroianni of Milford, who spent a year pulling security in Afghanistan with the 772nd Military Police Co., said he doesn't know what he'll do when his enlistment is up in March. His first child is due in April.
The 29-year-old expectant father said he knows that signing a re-enlistment contract is tantamount to raising his hand for another Iraq tour.
"I'm willing to go," he said. "I'm just trying to decide what's best for my family."
Guard officials chalked up some of the strength decline in recent years to base closures here that dried up the supply of soldiers coming off active duty and to the culling of guardsmen who weren't up to the constant deployments for health or other reasons.
"If they are not deployable, in the operational tempo we have right now, they are not very useful," said Capt. Winfield Danielson, a state Guard spokesman. "It's not a matter of if you are going to be deployed, but when."
Citation: Thomas Caywood, "Troops let Guard down: Mass. National Guard faces recruiting crisis," Boston Herald, 13 October 2004.