Maine students called to service Increasing number forced to interrupt college to answer call of duty

AUBURN – A growing number of Maine college students are getting the call to go overseas with the National Guard units they serve.

As an increasing number of guardsmen are called up to fight terrorists and serve in Iraq, many are finding themselves in a position they never considered before: putting their lives on hold for the service when they’re in the middle of college.

Joey Wing, 20, got the call last month that he was being deployed with the 133rd Engineering Combat Division for up to 18 months. A month away from finals, Wing had to figure out how to leave the University of Maine at Presque Isle without jeopardizing his tuition, his grades or the work he’d completed that semester.

This certainly wasn’t anything he anticipated when he joined the Guard three years ago.

“When I joined, times were different,” said Wing.

About 400 of Maine’s National Guard reservists are college students, said Master Sgt. Robert Haley, the guard’s education services manager. That’s 20 to 25 percent of all members in the state.

“Education benefits continue to be the number one reason people join the Air or Army National Guard,” Haley said.

Reservists can get about $20,000 a year for college, including full tuition to public universities or partial tuition to private colleges.

They also get a $282 stipend each month through the GI Bill and another $200 a month if they accept some hard-to-fill jobs that require extensive training. Members also get educational and career counseling.

In return, they agree to serve their country when duty calls.

Last month, the University of Southern Maine lost more than a dozen students to National Guard duty. At Lewiston-Auburn College in Lewiston, three or four students were called up.

About six students at Central Maine Community College in Auburn and five at the University of Maine at Farmington have been called to duty.

Greg Swett, dean of students at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor, said the National Guard had called up eight students since November, the most he has seen in his 24 years at the school.

One of those students is Rob Adams, a 19-year-old freshman from Hartford. Instead of working toward his associate degree in business management, he will be spending the next year and a half in the military.

Adams said he joined the Guard when he was a junior in high school so he could afford college.

Like most other colleges and universities in Maine, Eastern Maine Community College gives National Guard members a choice based on their situations. Students can withdraw and get no credit for coursework done that semester but get a full refund on tuition and guaranteed re-enrollment when they return.

Students can accept an incomplete for some or all of their courses, putting their classes on hold until they finish course requirements. Or, if their instructors agree, they can finish their coursework early and accept a grade.

Haley said at least half of National Guard students are getting credit for some course work, and some have decided to take their work with them overseas, sending in assignments by e-mail.

“My motto is: If you can get mail, you can take classes,” Haley said.

But many students didn’t have time to finish up course work and didn’t want to or couldn’t bring their work overseas.

Swett meets with every National Guard student called to duty, gives them their course work options, tells them he’s proud of them and hands them a sheet with detailed information about returning to school.

“But the reality is it’s hard to leave and come back,” he said. “We just hope that they do.”