Reservists Try to Read President’s Lips : Military: Along with National Guardsmen, they may be called to active duty, disrupting their personal lives and inflicting economic pain.

Buena Park police training officer Gary Jackson, a captain in the Army Reserve, was a little worried Wednesday.

He has teen-age daughters who love $60 Guess jeans. And one daughter is on the verge of getting married.

If President Bush calls up reservists for active duty--as he was considering Wednesday--Jackson would soon have less money for designer jeans and might not be around for the nuptials.

He is one of 14,425 military reservists and National Guardsmen in Orange County, and if Bush calls them to active duty in the Iraqi conflict, the impact on individuals

like Jackson and on businesses could be substantial.

By law, Bush has the power to call up reserves for at least three months and can extend that tour of duty another three months. Beyond that, the President must get approval from Congress.

Employees called for involuntary duty in the reserves are entitled to reinstatement in their old job, or an equivalent one, at the same pay they held before their military stint.

But like jury duty, the terms of a worker’s leave, from salary to medical benefits, are up to the employer, and in Orange County, a check Wednesday indicated those terms vary widely.

For Jackson, a return to active duty would spell both financial and personal hardship.

The Police Department would pay him two weeks salary, but after that his active duty salary of $3,500 a month as an Army captain would kick in. It is less than his civilian earnings.

Jackson, 42, who helped to set up and train a new national police force in Panama last year during the U.S. intervention, has been in the Army Reserve for 2 1/2 years. He was unconcerned about his job security but fretted more about his daughter’s wedding before 200 guests.

“It would be a shame to miss my daughter’s wedding,” Jackson said Wednesday. “I just hope the call comes after the first of the month. . . . I’ll be losing some. But for someone in an enlisted rank, it will be much harder, obviously, because the pay is lower.”

Low-ranking reservists can make as little as $50 a day on active duty.

In Santa Ana, attorney Kevin McDermott and his law partner, Robison Harley, are closely watching Bush’s pending decision to call up reserves. McDermott is a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve and Harley a lieutenant colonel. A call to active duty would essentially kill their law practice.

“You’ve got a number of clients, and you either have to persuade a judge to delay the case . . . or pick up the phone and call a lot of clients (and) refund a lot of money,” McDermott said. “We’d just have to shut down the whole practice. I think both of us would probably take a hell of a beating.”

And his staff of four also would be without jobs.

But, he added, he and thousands of others who sign on for their four- to six-year reserve duty knew the potential for that call, which could take them to any post at home or abroad.

The Bush Administration has been considering mobilizing some of the nation’s 1.6 million reserves and National Guardsmen to fill positions vacated by thousands of troops bound for the Persian Gulf.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Army Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed Bush at the Pentagon on Wednesday on the Middle East crisis and what military experts consider the largest U.S. military deployment since the Vietnam War.

Bush, Cheney and Powell also discussed the possibility of activating 200,000 reservists--the maximum allowed by law unless the country is at war. If that happens, it will be the largest deployment of reserves since the Vietnam War.

“They were looking at the call-up of the Guard and reserves as an option, and there was nothing being done with it at this time,” Pentagon spokesman Doug Hart said.

National Guard units are state militia overseen by governors, hence a presidential order activating reserves would not affect them, Pentagon spokeswoman Jan Bodanyi said. Yet Hart said that does not rule out the National Guard entirely.

“They are as ready as reserves,” he said. “All of them train on an active basis, so the way a call-up would happen is, (military leaders) would figure out the needs and demands and take those with specialties in either the Guard or the reserves to fill those needs.”

In Orange County, the National Guard, with 13,000 people, far outnumbers the reserves of other services. Military officials in Washington said Orange County is home to 400 naval reservists, 1,025 Marine reservists and a substantial number of Army reservists based at Los Alamitos. In California as a whole, there are 130,000 reservists, Pentagon officials said.

“The current situation is we have reservists and National Guardsmen who are supporting our efforts in the Middle East as volunteers,” Bodanyi said.

As with jury duty, she said, employers are allowed to make mostly their own arrangements for compensation and job security for workers who are volunteer reserves.

From Orange County’s largest employer, Hughes Aircraft Co., to the family-run diner around the corner, the terms for those in the reserves vary widely.

Ray Silvius, a spokesman for Fullerton-based Hughes, said the company grants military leaves to reservists and guarantees that their jobs will be protected until they return. He said he did not know how many of the firm’s 12,000 employees are reservists, but he indicated that a call-up would not have a major impact on Hughes.

At Disneyland, 8,000 full-time employees are guaranteed a military leave of up to 30 days, spokesman Bob Roth said. The amusement park also supplements armed services salaries so that employees take home something equivalent to their usual pay. However, Roth said, jobs are not guaranteed beyond a 30-day leave.

The Los Angeles Times, with 10,000 employees, 1,200 of them in Orange County, grants unpaid military leave to both full- and part-time workers for as long as service is required. However, employees must apply for their jobs within 90 days after being released from service if they want to retain employment rights. Employees are not required to apply their vacation time to military leave.

“By far, the majority of employers are very supportive of their employees’ reserve service,” said Pentagon public affairs specialist Brian R. Kilgallen. “If there are problems, the Department of Labor has the statutory responsibility to assist the service member and the Department of Defense has an organization to help mediate any problems.”