A Long Time Gone-As MN Guardsmen's Tour Is Extended, Small Home Towns Acutely Feel Their Absence

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/26/AR2007052601260.html

A Long Time Gone
As Minnesota Guardsmen's Tour Is Extended, Small Home Towns Acutely Feel Their Absence

By Peter Slevin
The Washington Post
Sunday, May 27, 2007; Page A01

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By the time winter gave way to spring, the Minnesota National Guard was supposed to be back from war. Austin's father, Sgt. 1st Class Corey Cassavant, would be fishing for walleye and bass and grilling his catch. Spec. Corey Stusynski would be behind the counter at his paint store and teaching Sunday school. Staff Sgt. Logan Wallace would be plowing the fields near Thief Lake.

But guard members from small towns such as Crookston, Goodridge and Fergus Falls are still patrolling Iraq, their tour extended by President Bush's troop buildup. When they finally return this summer, they will have been gone nearly two years, one of the longest stints of any guard unit since Sept. 11, 2001.

Their absence is evident in the parked pickup trucks and the vacant dining room chairs in communities across northern Minnesota. It is clear in the weariness of friends and relatives who are filling in. As the deployment stretches on, children study their fathers in pixelated images. Bosses juggle assignments. Mothers juggle everything.

"How can I articulate that the absence is constant?" asked Jennifer Modeen, a social worker and mother of 4-year-old Sam and 10-year-old Hannah. "It's not like one day I had plumbing that didn't work and I thought, 'Oh, God, what I am I going to do because my husband's not here?' It's not that. It's the missing of the Christmas parties, the birthdays, the sadness that Sam feels."

At one point in nearby Fargo, N.D., 15 of the police department's 125 sworn officers were serving Guard duty abroad. "We're always running shorthanded," said Lt. Pat Claus, "and to be even more shorthanded puts an added stress on us."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) described a "ripple effect across so many lives and walks of life. They're really strong people, but even the strongest among us get frustrated and discouraged at times."

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