Perspective: Many reservists elevating family over re-enlistment

WASHINGTON -- Sgt. Vic Blazier and his wife, Capt. Carla Blazier, were sent to war in 2003, leaving an infant and a toddler with a grandfather who died while the couple served in Iraq.

The ex-Army reservists from Marion, Ohio, had become civilian soldiers out of patriotism. But the sacrifice proved overwhelming. After a decade of service, she resigned as an officer in late 2004 following a year in Iraq. He returned home on hardship leave in late 2003 after his father died. Last year he passed up re-enlistment and joined Iraq Veterans Against the War.

The Blaziers are part of what military experts see as a pattern as the Pentagon seeks to increase the burden on the Army's two reserve components, the Reserve and National Guard. Torn between family and the call to duty, many are choosing family when re-enlistment time arrives.

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