While he was in Iraq, Tonganoxie Police Chief Ken Carpenter kept running into other Kansans.

“Some of the people I saw were doing classified missions,” said Carpenter, who served as a sergeant major in the Army reserves. “The majority were doing truck driver and supply missions. Supply is a big operation over there.”

So Carpenter — who returned to work this week after a year in Iraq — wasn’t surprised to find Kansas is now shouldering a big share of America’s military burden in the age of terror.

According to the Defense Department, National Guard and reserve units from Kansas have the nation’s eighth-highest mobilization rate per-capita, with 11.2 active-duty soldiers called to active duty for every 10,000 residents in the state. A total of 3,054 Kansans are on active duty, according to the department.

“I just know a lot of Kansas guys are over there,” Carpenter said Wednesday.

Hawaii had the highest mobilization rates, with 26 soldiers called to duty for every 10,000 residents; Florida was the lowest-ranked state, with 1.4 call-ups per 10,000 residents.

“These numbers reflect the patriotism of Kansans,” U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told the Journal-World through a spokeswoman. Roberts is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

‘Part of the deal’

Officials said that the war in Iraq is not the sole reason for the call-ups, noting that American units are also serving peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and providing support services at bases in the United States.

But it’s clear that Kansas communities are feeling the effects of the call-ups.

In Iola — home of the National Guard’s 891st Engineering Battalion — three of the police department’s 17 officers have gone off to war.

Ken Carpenter is back on duty as Tonganoxie's police chief. Carpenter, like many Kansans, took time off from his regular job to serve in Iraq.

“It’s a little bit difficult to hire replacements,” said Mayor John McRae. “We’ve got those jobs open for those guys when they get back.”

He added: “It’s part of the deal. You’ll find a lot of those Guard guys in police departments and fire departments — young, active guys.”

Likewise, Tonganoxie went without its police chief for a year while Carpenter was away, though he downplayed the effect of his absence.

“Unfortunately, it looked like it ran fine without me,” Carpenter said. “I hope the mayor and City Council didn’t catch on to that.”

Individual burdens

“While we understand that when our soldiers are deployed, their families, employers and communities have to make tremendous sacrifices, we are at war, and we are proud of each and every Kansan serving their nation,” Roberts said.

To alleviate some of the pain, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius last month signed the Military Bill of Rights, which guarantees state employees that they won’t lose pay if they’re called to active duty in the Guard and reserves.

Reserve call-up change at issue (01-09-05) Military duty summons attorney (10-22-04) Reporters hammer reservists with not-so-friendly verbal fire (02-20-04) Reservists leave on hush-hush mission (12-04-02) Area reservists await more call-ups (10-05-02)

“This use of the Guard and Reserve troops is unlike we have ever seen before in Kansas,” Sebelius said at the time. “These soldiers and their families have sacrificed greatly, not anticipating the duty for this length of time and the financial burdens it causes.”

Joy Moser, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General’s Department, said the state still has enough National Guard troops at home to handle local duties.

“We still have plenty of people to do anything there is with regard to response, homeland security, disasters and emergencies,” Moser said Wednesday.

One of the biggest challenges, she said, is that Fort Riley soldiers would often choose to stay in Kansas and join the National Guard when they left the Army. But “stop loss” orders preventing retirements, she said, has dried up that source of recruits.

“If you can’t get out, you can’t join the Guard,” she said.

McRae said Iola supports the troops, but is ready to get them back as soon as possible.

“I wish there were an end to it,” McRae said. “We’ve got an awful lot of folks in town who are gone, and we miss them. The economy misses them and the department misses them.”