A Canceled Leave for Reservists in Kuwait Distresses Families

[kskiska]

BOSTON, Oct. 2 — Catherine Anzivino had excitedly told her son Michael the news. His father, Sgt. Scott Anzivino, who has been stationed in Kuwait for months, would be on a two-week home leave in November, there to celebrate Michael's fifth birthday.

"He misses him terrible," Ms. Anzivino said of her son. "He puts full Army gear on every day."

Then, on Monday, the call came in from Sergeant Anzivino. His unit, the 368th Engineer Combat Battalion, was no longer being allowed to go on leave. He and hundreds of other reservists in his unit were told that their commander had canceled their R & R.

This after Sergeant Anzivino and dozens of other members of his unit had spent their own money on expensive plane tickets because they were told there would not be room on the military's planes, relatives of the soldiers said.

Sergeant Anzivino and his family were crushed, his wife said from their home in Norfolk, a Boston suburb. She has not found the right words to break the news to her son. Her husband, as first sergeant of the battalion, found himself in a similar position.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2003/10/03/national/03HOME.html

[Cha]

1. I can imagine! I heard the other night that "reservist enlistments

were not meeting their goals"...wonder why?

[burrowowl]

2. The tickets are

probably non-refundable. The airlines win! The repugs just know how to soak every last cent out of the poor and getting poorer.
When are the PEOPLE going to wake up?