Weary families of citizen soldiers band together to seek answers

Grieving. Disheartened. Weary.

Those are words that wives of two Utah National Guard soldiers use to describe their families after news that the Middle East deployment of the 1457th Combat Engineers has been extended.

They're so concerned that they and the wife of a member of the Army Reserve's 419th Transportation Company, which was also extended last week, are spearheading what they hope will become a national organization focused on the extensions.

Both units have been away from their families nearly 15 months.

As of Dec. 12, 2003 — when the Pentagon last released unit figures — 521 soldiers of the 1457th were mobilized, as were 167 members of the 419th. They are headquartered in American Fork and Salt Lake City, respectively.

Both were activated in February 2003 and went to Fort Lewis, Wash., for training. They flew to the Middle East around the end of April 2003.

When the 1457th left Utah, said Linda Dexter, the general belief was they would be gone six months, maximum.

"And that seemed an impossible length of time at that point," she said.

After they left for Iraq, officials said troops could serve up to a year in the war theater. Time at training camps didn't count toward the year.

They served nearly all of that period. Then came the extensions.

Guard families are proud and have a great sense of patriotism, said Dexter, a Saratoga Springs resident and wife of Staff Sgt. Kevin Dexter. Her family's plight made headlines late last year when they had to move to another home when their rent was raised.

"But we are also absolutely weary and so are our soldiers," she said.

Families of some deployed Guard members launched a new organization, Rights for American Citizen Soldiers, after meeting with military officials Thursday. They want to be supportive of the National Guard and not protesters in an anti-war sense, Dexter said.

She is one of two vice presidents, while Natalie Whatcott of Lehi is president of RACS.

"The idea was to create a unified voice and develop a platform addressing the concerns," Dexter said, adding she loves the country and knew a deployment was part of the National Guard job. "But this is really unprecedented."