September 5, 2003 - Sergeant J, J, Chapa is a Texan. He is a weekend warrior, a member of the Texas National Guard. His assignment is not detached duty with the Alabama Guard in Birmingham. He is on active duty in Baghdad. He talked to Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune recently. “I'm not here for George Bush's foreign policy. I'm here because they sent me. We all have wives and children and we do what we have to do to get back alive.", Marx quotes him as saying in an article in the September 4th Chicago Tribune. Sergeant Chapa is one of the many American husbands and fathers whose families are bearing the cost of the Second Iraqi War.

I don’t know what Sergeant Chapa’s job was before he was called to active duty in Iraq. I do know that the paycheck that he draws for patrolling the streets and allies of the Iraqi capitol is far less that the salary he used to support his wife and kids back in Austin. Every day when he goes out to brave bombs and grenades and sniper’s bullets is a day that his wife and kids pay more than their share of the cost of the President’s grand adventure. It is a cost that doesn’t get figured in the Federal budget and won’t get totted up when they figure out how much above half-a- trillion the 2003 deficit soared.

Sergeant Chapa and all the other men and women who signed up for the National Guard pay that cost every day of their deployment. If his kids were covered under a group plan at work that medical insurance coverage ended when he was called up. The mortgage and car payments went on without the paycheck he used to earn. His contributions to his 401K stopped and so did his employers matching funds. He is not earning credits in his retirement plan. He will pay the cost of his Iraqi sojourn for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, back in DC, the Pentagon and Department of Veteran’s Affairs are taking a sharp look at the red ink running deep in the corridors. They are taking a sharp knife to combat pay. They are cutting back on Veteran’s benefits. There is a limit to what they can afford after the Bush tax cuts. Nobody is setting limits on the financial burden Sergeant Chapa will face when he comes home – if he comes home. There is no Federal program to help National Guard families maintain their lifestyle while the weekend warriors are deployed. National Guard families are the forgotten financial casualties of George’s splendid little war.

America owes the men and women of the National Guard and Reserves more than a year and more of hardship and financial uncertainty. When we send them off to the farthest reaches of the world to put their lives on the line so that the President can strut on the flight deck of a carrier we shouldn’t be asking them to put their wives and children and their futures on the line as well. We owe them more than that.

America is a rich country and part of it is growing richer thanks to the President’s largess to the least needy of Americans. If America is going to send its legions around the world to impose Pax Americana then it has to take care of the Legionaires.