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4:25 p.m., April 3, 2003--As the war in Iraq continues, a growing number of UD students and employees find that their academic and professional careers have been put on hold as their Reserve or National Guard units are called to active duty. While there is no set length of time specified, such tours of duty can range from several months to two years.
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| “As soon as I come home, I’m going to start school during the next available semester,” says UD freshman Caleb Mosher, a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. |
So far, 43 University of Delaware students and five employees have been called to active duty.
Among the UD students called up is Caleb Mosher, a freshman majoring in international relations, who recently reported for duty with his unit, the 166th Airlift Wing of the Delaware Air National Guard.
A staff sergeant from Pemberton, N.J., Mosher joined his reserve unit about six months ago, after a six-year tour of duty in the U.S. Air Force that began a month after his high school graduation from Pemberton High School.
After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Mosher worked as an aircraft mechanic on the B-1 bombers. In Delaware, he served as a crew chief working on C130 air transport planes based at the New Castle County Airport.
Although he originally joined the Air Force to see the world, Mosher said that he was proud of the opportunity to serve his country, both full-time and as a reservist.
“It’s not so much about going to fight. Just to serve is a very important thing,” Mosher said. “You might say I’m privileged.”
For students called up to active duty, it means officially withdrawing from all classes while remaining enrolled at UD. Mosher, who was in his first semester at UD when he was called up, said that individuals at UD helped to make the transition from full-time student to full-time serviceman as smooth as possible.
“Everything I had to do I was able to do in one day,” Mosher said. “As soon as I come home, I’m going to start school during the next available semester.”
Mosher said that he is aware of the anti-war protests locally and around the world, but believes that what he and his fellow reservists are doing is necessary to meet American security interests at home and abroad.
“Sometimes what you have to do is unpopular,” Mosher said. “Thomas Jefferson once said that ‘the price for democracy is constant vigilance.’ I don’t think the American people should forget that.”
Those in his unit are naturally sad to leave their families, Mosher said, but they feel that it is a job that needs to be done.
“I will miss my family and my girlfriend and being at the University,” Mosher said. “My family fully supports me, and they are especially proud of me.”
Although he accepts his call to active duty as part of his job as a reservist, Mosher said he hopes that students, faculty and staff at UD remember those who left school to fulfill their military obligation in the service of their country.
“Freedom is not free,” Mosher said. “I hope that the students who do stay behind are affected by the empty seats next to them and that they remember that the liberties they enjoy and take for granted are paid for with a price.”
Article by Jerry Rhodes
Photo by Kathy Flickinger
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