War hits close to home

The pending war in the Persian Gulf has many faces, some of which you recognize immediately, like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. But the real faces of the war are those like Elliana Alvarez.

Elliana is the 6-month-old daughter of Jessica and Reyes Alvarez of Wasilla. She is a beautiful baby with dark, large eyes, a head of black hair and a playful nature. She has brought joy and love into her parents' lives, but this week, things will change for her at home.

Sitting beside her diaper bag at the front door of Elliana's house is a suitcase and a duffel bag, filled with her mother's belongings. Her mom is a senior airman with the Air National Guard, and she was activated Feb. 28. She got her orders last week, and will be deployed in the very near future.

"The thing that bothers me the most is not being here for her first words, her first crawling, her first steps, her first everything," Jessica said Monday night. "I get excited, I get nervous, I get scared. I'm gonna miss Reyes, but we've been apart before. I'm worried that Elliana might not know who I am when I get home."

Jessica, a 1998 Colony High School graduate, doesn't know when she is leaving or where she's going. "It doesn't take Einstein to figure out where we'll probably be going," she said. Her bags are packed because she may get the call in the morning and leave that night, and she has been prepared since the beginning of this week. She also doesn't know how long she's going to be gone.

"Officially, it can be anywhere from three months to two years, but we aren't even allowed to speculate on how long it'll be," Jessica said.

For her husband, a 2000 Colony graduate, there is a fear, but not of his wife getting hurt.

"I'm not worried about her going out there. I don't think anything bad is going to happen to her. The fear I have is of trying to handle the everyday things with just one person now. We've got a lot of family, but there's only one of us to do all the day-to-day stuff and take care of Elliana," Reyes said.

But Jessica certainly doesn't want anybody's pity. She could have opted out of the Air National Guard when she had Elliana six months ago, but she said that just isn't her nature.

"Ethically and morally, my parents didn't raise me to back out of something I've given my word I'd do," Jessica said. "I signed that contract, and I have to honor it."

Reyes comes from a large military family, so he understands the deployment, but it doesn't make it any easier.

"We've been apart for large periods of time before, so I don't think it's going to hurt as much," Reyes said. "But having Jessica miss Elliana's first words and first steps is what is going to hurt the most."

Her mother, Angela Phillips, said she is taking the news harder than her daughter.

"If it's bothering her, she's putting up a strong front," Phillips said. "She knows how nervous I am about this, and she's trying to stay strong for us I think. When she first called to say she was being called to active duty, she asked me if Elliana will remember her when she gets back. I told her 'Elliana may not remember your face, but she'll remember your heart.' I couldn't keep talking. I started crying and had to give the phone to my husband."

Jessica signed up for the Air National Guard out of high school, in September 1998. She enlisted for six months. She wanted to go to school and study medicine, and she saw the Air National Guard as a perfect fit.

She was assigned to Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage.

"That way, if I didn't like the military lifestyle, it was only one weekend a month," Jessica said. "I didn't really think about going to war. Wars belonged to my parents' generation, not mine. I chose the Alaska Air National Guard because I love my country, and I love my state. I could stay here and go to school through the G.I. Bill."

She's earned numerous credits, including her certified nurses assistant (CNA) rating. Things changed on Sept. 11, 2001, however.

"I did a lot of soul searching," she said. "I never thought about being deployed until that happened."

Now that she's being deployed, the medical technician certainly doesn't want anyone worrying about her. In fact, she said she'll probably sign up for another two or three years of the Air National Guard, once her first six-year enlistment expires next September.

"I'd highly suggest the Guard to everyone," she said. "You can get educational training, and it's only one weekend a month if you don't like it. It makes you a stronger person."

She knows she's not alone in being deployed, and there are many other families out there going through the same feelings she is going through this week.

"There are a lot of people leaving. Kids, spouses, families. I feel for every one of them," Jessica said.