FERDINAND, Ind. — When Pat Fromme shipped out last year for a six-month tour in Iraq with the Indiana National Guard, the citizen soldier left behind a farm, a wife, three kids and 27,000 turkeys.
Six months turned into a year, then 15 months. He returned home in March, and was promoted to another Guard unit. That unit has recently been called up for duty in Afghanistan. He knows he will have to join it; he just doesn't know when.
His wife and family will struggle to do their best and wait for him. The turkeys, however, may be gone by the time he gets back.
"If I have to go again right away, the farm won't make it," said Fromme, 39, a sergeant major now with the 76th Infantry Brigade.
The conflicts in the Middle East have created unexpected financial hardships for many of the estimated 364,000 part-time soldiers in the reserves and the National Guard who have been called up for service since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The deployment of citizen soldiers is the largest such effort since World War II; it is also one of the longest. Today, reservists and guardsmen are facing tours in Iraq as long as 20 months, as well as repeat deployments.
As a result, many soldiers have drained their savings to support their families while they are gone. Some have lost their homes. Others have lost their jobs at small businesses, which say they can't afford to keep the positions open -- even though they're breaking the law. And numerous small-business owners have shut down their companies or have had to declare bankruptcy.
Ted Valentini, an officer with the Army Reserve, lost his business that makes molds for plastics and electronics after a second tour of duty sent him to Iraq. The assets of the Beavercreek, Ohio, firm were sold off last year.
Danny Lewis, a chief warrant officer in the Marine Corps Reserve who is stationed in Baghdad, faced an equally tough situation. Unable to find a replacement for himself, Lewis closed his landscaping business in Moorseville, N.C., and laid off his two employees soon after he was deployed.
Such troubling tales are expected to grow. Troop levels are rising, not falling as had been anticipated. The Pentagon last week alerted 37,000 support soldiers -- mostly in National Guard or Reserve units -- that they would be replacing troops leaving the Middle East.
