Young Reserve Officers share
perspectives on deployment
By Tech. Sgt. Steve Staedler
US Air Force

When Air Force 1st Lieutenant Scott Stenzel’s role as a C-130 load master with the Delaware Air National Guard dramatically increased in the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, his employer was initially supportive.

But when Lieutenant Stenzel’s unit was activated in 2003 to serve a total of two years in Iraq and Afghanistan, his employer’s patience started to run out.

“I had the same job, but it was moved to a different location and at the same pay,” he said of his job as a physical therapist assistant. “So I chose not to go back to my job.”

On the other hand, it wasn’t a deployment that troubled 2nd Lt. Patricia Barbisch’s employer, but her leaving for six weeks to attend officer training school.

“My supervisor told me my six-week leave would set me back six months developmentally,” said Lieutenant Barbisch.

The two US Air Force Reserve lieutenants were joined by Swedish Armed Forces 1st Lt. Kristina Bruseback Thursday in a round-table discussion about their experiences in dealing with employers and military commitments. The discussion was part of CIOR’s annual symposium.

Lieutenant Bruseback, who was a student when she deployed to Afghanistan for a nine-month tour back in 2005, said the military needs to provide added flexibility to reservists to help them get their civilian careers on track. She also said employers need to do a better job understanding the policies and procedures regarding deployments and other military commitments to help provide a smoother transition.

It was anything but a smooth transition when Lieutenant Stenzel returned from his activation. He ended up not going back to his civilian job and became a full-time reservist instead. In the process, he learned a life lesson.

“Take ownership of the situation and improve it,” he said. “Direct employer-to-unit communication for a traditional reservist is very important. I think there should be at least some type of formal or informal communication process to keep employers aware of what’s going on.”

Lieutenant Barbisch, who is preparing for a deployment to Iraq later this year, agrees that communication is key – not only to keep employers in the loop about military commitments, but also to inform them on the added benefits reservists bring to the workplace.

“I think that we fail to communicate what we’re actually doing in the military,” she said. “If we communicate better to civilian employers about the benefits of the training that we bring to the job, things will be better all around.”