The lead paragraph in a recent USA Today story reveals a disgusting situation that should be remedied immediately.

The item: “The annual number of reservists and National Guard members who say they have been reassigned, lost benefits or been fired from civilian jobs after returning from duty has increased by about 30 percent since 2002.”

We are talking about military personnel who have been sent into harm’s way in Iraq, where there are no front lines of a traditional war and where a simple walk down a street can be injurious or fatal. These people are doing what they have been asked and trained to do and are doing it well. They have been yanked away from their families and their civilian lives and they deserve better than some firms and agencies are providing them.

About 500,000 of the 850,000 reservists and Guard members have been mobilized since late 2001, according to Maj. Rob Palmer, spokesman for a Pentagon office that tries to resolve job disputes. It’s terrible that some have not been treated properly upon their return.

After the 1991 Gulf War “I was welcomed home with ticker tape,” says Marc Garcia, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves. “This time I get the door slammed in my face.” Garcia, 44, a member of the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, has been called up twice since Sept. 11, 2001 – once for Afghanistan and the last time for stateside duty.

The Labor Department says it has handled 1,548 complaints from returning service members in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, nearly 500 more cases than in the previous reporting period.

Granted, some setbacks and inconveniences are involved for employers, and adjustments have to be made. But what sacrifices are the employers, public or private, making in comparison to what the reservists have to face? It’s been said that one of the problems of battling terrorists is that the U.S. public is not required to make sacrifices as has been done in past conflict, so people are out of touch.

Employers should not be allowed to behave in such a cruel and insensitive manner. Anyone called up for duty, now or at any other time, deserves the best of treatment from the people they normally work for.

Retired Marine Gen. Dennis McCarthy, executive director of the Reserve Officers Assn., is well aware that deployments can be tough on employers, particularly small companies.

But he hits the nail on the head with: “That burden is an acceptable cost when it’s compared to the value of reserve service to our country.”

Message to employers: Accept that cost, absorb it and treat these people as you’d want to be treated.