'Quiet army' reports for duty

Bob Muir has been working out in a Moab gym more than usual the last couple of weeks. He's whipping his 46-year-old body into shape for combat.

"Well, I feel like I'm getting physically fit and ready for what the Army's going to give to me," Muir said.

After more than 13 years as civilian real estate appraiser, Muir is undergoing a sudden, unexpected change in his life. Today, thanks to orders from the U.S. Army, he will shut down his business. In less than three weeks he'll report for duty at Fort Jackson, S.C. Not long after that, he expects to mobilize for the war in Iraq.

The orders came in the mail just after Christmas. When Muir read them he was stunned. "Just kind of a sinking feeling," Muir said. "Kind of a shock. I had to read it several times to make sure."

What's happening to Muir has happened to more than 7,000 people over the past 18 months. It's part of a little-known military effort to beef up the supply of troops with people whose military career seemed over long ago.

"Physically, it will be very demanding," Muir said. "Mentally, I think I'm prepared."

The call-ups are for members of the Individual Ready Reserve. They are soldiers who were once on active duty but who went to inactive status many years ago. Although they are still considered soldiers by the U.S. government, they get no ongoing training because they are not members of Army Reserve units or the National Guard.

When ordered to report for duty, they travel as individuals. As they depart, there are typically no airport ceremonies and no mobs of flag-waving families. Muir calls it a "quiet army," heading off to war without fanfare or public notice.

According to a Pentagon spokeswoman, 7,380 Ready Reservists have been ordered back to active duty since the call-ups began in August of 2004. Of those, 3,954 have actually reported for duty. Many have been granted delays or exemptions because of special hardships.

Muir's immediate concern is the financial well-being of his wife, Sherl, and two teenage children, Jessica and Randy. As Muir shuts down his business, his wife is suddenly out of a job, too, because she served as his bookkeeper and accountant. Now she's had to take other work cleaning and gardening.

"It's going to be hard," Muir said, "but I know she can do it."

Long-term, Muir worries that his business will lose ground while he's away at war. He wonders if he'll lose the client base he's worked hard to build up over the past 13 years. "Well, I would have to start over, just from the beginning."

Muir realizes his own decisions led to this situation.

He served on active duty in the U.S. Army for more than 11 years beginning in 1981. In 1992, after the first Persian Gulf War, the Pentagon was trying to reduce the size of the Army. At the same time, Muir wanted to leave the Army to take over his father's appraisal business in Moab. He took advantage of an opportunity to get out before his re-enlistment was up.

The Army rewarded him for leaving early with a small annual bonus that continues to this day. In return, Muir agreed to be in the Individual Ready Reserves, available if the Army ever needed him.

Now, after years of grinding combat in Iraq, the Army does need him.

"I've taken their money," Muir said. "They've chosen me and I will go. I'm not trying to back out of it or anything like that. I'm going in with a good attitude because I want to succeed at whatever I'm going to do. My goal is to come home."

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E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com