Molly Tumanic

With the United States at risk of going to war with Iraq, some students need to prepare for the possibility of being pulled out of school to fulfill their duties as reserves.

That doesn’t bother junior psychology major Carey Curran, an Army Reserve member.

“I just feel like if something happens and I have to go over, that is just something I have to do to help (my) fellow Americans out,” Curran said. “I joined knowing it was a possibility.”

For her position at the Combat Support Hospital out of Madison, she would not get called unless a war breaks out and Americans need medical assistance.

Curran’s duty with her unit would be to bring materials to set up a hospital.

The Army reimburses tuition for students who are pulled out during a semester.

Junior Jessica Schutz, a member of the National Guard, has different feelings about the possibility of being pulled out of school.

“To be honest, I don’t want to go,” Schutz said. “When I joined the Guard I guess I never thought that it would happen.”

Schutz is engaged and plans to graduate in May. She said being pulled from school now would interfere with those plans.

Her unit, which maintains records of Guard members throughout the state, has a slim chance of going abroad.

“If we were to go to war, just about every other military unit would go before us,” Schutz said.

It is still nerve racking for her because her training changes as the United State’s friction with Iraq increases, she said.

“What is scary now is that our drills kind of revolve around our wartime mission whereas before they never did,” Schutz said.

Officials from the Eau Claire Army Reserve Office declined to comment on what wartime would mean for reserves in Eau Claire.