Eudora ? When the twin sisters followed their father’s footsteps to join the U.S. Army Reserve, they didn’t give much thought to the notion their service could split them up.

It soon will.

Melanie Claggett, 20, is headed to Kuwait with a U.S. Army Reserve supply unit. It may be this week; it may not be for a month. The orders are sealed.

But when Claggett goes, she’ll leave behind her twin, Melissa, also in the Reserves, and her parents, Robert and Peggy Claggett.

“I’m scared,” Peggy Claggett said. “I’ll miss her.”

Robert Claggett, who has been in the Reserves for 25 years, knew that one or both of his daughters eventually would get the call. Both women say his positive talk about the military is the reason they signed up three years ago, while still in high school.

“When you sign on that bottom line, you don’t know what the future holds,” said Robert Claggett, a chief warrant officer and commander of the 312th Army Reserve Band based in Lawrence. He was confident his daughter’s training and ability to handle herself would serve her well.

In February, the sisters were attending Cottey College, a two-year college for women in Nevada, Mo., when Melanie learned she’d been called to duty with the 317th Quartermaster Battalion in Lawrence. She reported in March and was transferred to another quartermaster unit in Independence, Kan.

She’s spent much of her time since training at Fort Riley.

Last week, she had a few days at home with her family. She told them she could be in Kuwait for a year. She doesn’t know whether her unit will end up in Iraq.

Melissa Claggett recently completed the academic year at Cottey. She thinks often about her sister’s call-up — and the fact she hasn’t been tapped herself.

The Claggetts, from left, Peggy, Melanie, Robert and Melissa, are all coping with Melanie's pending deployment to Kuwait. Eudora twins Melanie and Melissa joined the Army Reserves in high school and now find themselves separated by Melanie's impending deployment.

“I feel a little guilty and a little jealous,” Melissa said. “I kind of want to go with her. And there is some sadness.”

Melanie said she’s glad she’s the one who got the call.

“I’m ready to go,” she said. “My company has had excellent training. I’m really comfortable with the people I work with.”

Other Lawrence-area servicemen and women still are deployed, as well.

Mary Sherman, of Lawrence, said she was relieved her son was back stateside. Ronald B. Hildner is back in Tampa, Fla., with the Army Central Command. Hildner, who recently was promoted from captain to major, worked in the command center in Qatar, well away from the fighting.

“We got e-mails from him once a week,” Sherman said. “He said he did a lot of work with missiles and made sure anything they (Iraqis) sent up didn’t get there.”

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Betty Egan, of Lawrence, is relieved the war is over. Still, she knows her grandnephew, David Staugaitis, is still in Iraq with his Marine unit — and still in harm’s way.

“I write to him every day, but we haven’t heard much from him,” Egan said last week.

Fox News Network reporter Rick Leventhal was embedded with Staugaitis’ unit and the two sometimes traveled together, Egan said. Twice, Staugaitis was interviewed by Leventhal.

“I have a couple of tapes, and whenever I get lonely for him, I play them,” Egan said.