University students in the National Guard currently are being called up for active duty, prompting University officials to promise when students return, they will find the transition from the frontline to the classroom as simple as possible.
Gov. Mark R. Warner also has increased benefits to soldiers serving in active duty by signing two bills and an executive order providing legal and financial aid to those called up.
Approximately 35 soldiers from the 1030th Engineer Battalion were activated for federal service March 15 and now are stationed at Fort Eustis in Newport News, Va., according a press release from Lt. Col. Chester Carter, a Virginia Army National Guard public affairs officer. This unit of national guardsmen based out of Gate City, Va. includes one University student.
Third-Year College student Jordan Jackson, a private first class in the National Guard, was one of about six students activated and forced to leave the University. His mother, Deanna Jackson, said she was "very, very sad" when he received notice he would be deployed, but supports her son's decision to serve, despite her own disdain for war.
"You don't ever want to your child to go to war," Jackson said. "But I support him 1,000 percent."
The 1030th currently is training at the Newport News facility and in all likelihood will be deployed to the Persian Gulf in two weeks, she said.
The 2nd Battalion, 116th Infantry -- the local unit of the Virginia National Guard -- was deployed for a year tour of duty to Guantanomo Bay, Cuba last November and remains in the Caribbean guarding Taliban prisoners, Sgt. First Class James Decker said.
Lt. Col. Hampton Hite, the head of the University's Army ROTC program, said two of his students, Law student Joe Tobin and third-year Commerce student Matt Bulloch, were activated with the unit last fall.
Decker said after the unit's mission in Cuba is completed, there is "always that possibility" that the 325-man unit could be sent to Iraq.
Those students forced to leave classes because of their military obligations will be treated like any other student who withdraws from the University when they return, Asst. Registrar Robert LeHeup said.
After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, when several University students were sent to the Persian Gulf as part of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, LeHeup said the University established a policy to better meet the academic needs of students returning from military service.
Last Thursday at Fort Lee, Warner lauded National Guardsmen's commitment to the nation and signed two bills into law extending benefits to the state's citizen-soldiers.
"We want to support them in every way, and make serving in the guard no way a set back for them," Warner Spokesperson Ellen Qualls said. "We want to make it as painless as possible for them to serve."
The new legislation extends benefits received by active duty soldiers under the 1940 Federal Soldier's and Sailor's Civil Relief Act to National Guard soldiers called up for 30 days or more. It also allows state employees activated to duty to carry over their annual leave time.
"The effort that Virginians have provided is a great service to our state and to our country, and we are all indebted to them for giving their time and effort and risking their lives that we might be safe," said Del. James Almand, D-47th, the sponsor of one of the bills.
Wednesday, Warner also issued Executive Order 44, which directs state agencies to pay state employees selected for active duty supplemental pay and encourages those in the private sector to do the same.
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