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Sgt. Matthew Hite will be coming back to Minnesota soon after his third deployment with the Minnesota National Guard. While he's been in Kuwait the past 11 months, his 7-year-old son, Charles, has learned to play T-ball. Hite wasn't there to see it.
Hite would love to play ball with Charles and take him to Disney World some day. But because the Department of Defense reneged on a promise to increase the time off for soldiers who have had multiple deployments, Hite and 810 of his soldiers will lose at least 21 days of down time, making it more difficult for him to get to know his son.
The soldiers expected the increased leave because of a policy the Pentagon started in 2007 to make up for repeatedly deploying soldiers for long stints in war zones without adequate "dwell time." Guard soldiers were supposed to have five years between deployments, but two active wars have forced the Pentagon to deploy them more frequently.
The policy allowed an increasing number of days off for each month soldiers spent deployed. That changed last October, when the Pentagon modified it using a formula based on their time deployed.
"It's frustrating," said Hite. "Frustrating that the time we thought we had to spend with family is being taken away."
Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline, a former Marine whose son is serving in the Army, is frustrated, too.
He has rallied Minnesota's delegation to get the Pentagon to rethink its decision and allow soldiers who were already deployed when the policy was changed to be grandfathered in and allowed the extra time off. In this economy, those looking for work when they return would have a bigger cushion, he said.
"It's not unreasonable for the Pentagon to change the policy," Kline said Thursday.
"What's unacceptable, what's caused concern and anger, frankly, is they changed the policy after our men and women were already deployed. They look at it in simple terms of breaking faith. Promises made were not kept."
Kline said Minnesota's Red Bulls were caught in a similar rule change a couple of years ago and stood to lose money, "so they've been through this before, where they thought they had a bad deal. Some of these men and women are exactly the same people."
Kline has written to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and recently talked to him "eyeball-to-eyeball" to emphasize the importance of the promise. Kline said the issue has caused morale problems.
Minnesota Guard members "are coming back now so we're eager to get this going," said Kline. "I'm increasingly optimistic [Panetta] is going to fix this."
Meanwhile, Kline has legislation in the House, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar has a bill in the Senate to change it, but Panetta could expedite the change "with the stroke of a pen," Kline said.
That would be great for Hite. In the seven years since Charles was born, Hite has been deployed for nearly half his life: 16 months in Afghanistan, a year in Kosovo and nearly a year in Kuwait.
"He's grown up now," said Hite. "He's a smart kid. I'd like to take him camping and maybe go on a father-son trip together."
If he gets more time, "that would be wonderful," said Hite, who is now in Mississippi. "It would mean a lot."
It's also important to Capt. Jon Anderson, who also just returned from Kuwait, his second deployment. Anderson has two boys, Lincoln, 17 months, and Emmitt, who is just 10 weeks old. His wife, Christina, has shouldered the burden of raising the two toddlers herself.
"The biggest thing for me, with two small children, is to be there for the family," said Anderson.
"I'm missing 21 days that I could use to get to know them and see how they react to me."
Anderson, a career soldier, said the abrupt rule change caused morale problems.
"There are some soldiers who are going to leave because of this," he said. "It's one more thing on the list; if the government won't take care of us on the back side, why should we sacrifice our family?"
Anderson loves his job and plans on staying. But he will cherish whatever time he has in Minnesota.
"We're going to a cabin up north and just taking it easy," he said. "Just spending some time with my family."
jtevlin@startribune.com • 612-673-1702
