CAPE DOCTOR SEEKS WAIVER FROM GULF DUTY; BELIVES TWO ILL STEPCHILDREN MORE PRESSING PROBLEM

NAVAL RESERVISTS GET DESERT SHIELD CALL: Seven U.S. naval reservists reported Monday to the Cape Girardeau Naval Reserve for processing prior to joining Operation Desert Shield, including these men of Fleet Hospital 500, Combat Zone 22, who will report to Alameda, Calif. Saturday. From left are Leonard Dale Ratliff and Richard D. Groves of Cape Girardeau, Warren Jokerst of Ste. Genevieve, and Larry Eskew of Cape Girardeau. Today about 55 more naval reservists of Fleet Hospital 22 were to be processed.

CAPE GIRARDEAU A Cape Girardeau immunologist whose naval reserve unit was called up early this week to join troops in the Persian Gulf is pleading with government and military officials to excuse him from active duty.

He said his family needs him more than does his country.

"I'm not going to rest on this," said Dr. Robert Sacha. "I don't mind serving my country, but to be honest, I've got more pressing problems with my family."

Sacha's 11-year-old stepson, Brad LePage, is afflicted with muscular dystrophy and confined to a wheelchair. Another stepson, Brian Harding, 19, was diagnosed with cancer in September.

Sacha said he needs to be close to his family and wants to be able to help his wife, Linda, care for the two boys.

After the unit was activated early this week, Sacha applied for a hardship waiver from the military. It was turned down and he reapplied. Today he will appear before a military panel as a last-ditch effort to obtain the waiver.

Even so, Sacha said: "It doesn't look good. Since the first one was turned down, I think this hearing is just a formality. I'm facing the wall right now."

He even sent by Federal Express a personal letter to President George Bush asking him for help in obtaining the waiver.

"I told him I know he's busy, but I asked him to please help me," Sacha said. "I haven't heard anything back."

To qualify for a waiver, a member of the military must either be in the third trimester of pregnancy, have a family member die or be hospitalized himself.

"I'm going under the assumption that I'm not going to get a waiver," he said. "I've been in the military for years and I understand the government. There's a lot of bureaucracy and a lot of red tape. They see the rules and they say, `sorry.'

Sacha served in the Air Force for eight years and has been a member of the naval reserves for four or five years, he said.

He said he has asked that he be stationed at the military hospital in Memphis, Tenn., instead of in the Persian Gulf.

"At least if I'm in Memphis I'd be closer to my wife," he said. "If I'm in Saudi Arabia, I might as well be on the other end of the Earth."

He said though he wants to stay with his family, he's not trying to avoid active duty.

"I'm ready to roll, but I hope and pray I don't have to," he said.

Meanwhile, Sacha is in the process of closing down his medical practice, which he's had for seven years.

He said he'll put notices in newspapers to inform his 3,000 to 4,000 patients, some of whom live as far away as Poplar Bluff and Farmington, of the closing.

"There's no way I can send letters to all of them," he said, adding that he hoped he wouldn't lose many of those patients as a result of his absence.

But, he said, "This just leaves them stranded."

Upon his return, he plans to start up his practice again.

"This is going to effect a lot of people," he said, adding that his four office employees will be out of a job during the time he's gone.

But his most pressing concern is his family, he said.

"The hardest thing is leaving my family behind. The one thing that any reservist hopes for is that other people in the community will help take care of his family and support them. That's my biggest concern."

Sacha is one of the 970 members of the Naval Reserve Fleet Hospital Unit that covers the five-state area of Missouri, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas.

The entire unit, consisting of 22 detachments, has been called up, making it the largest medical unit that has been activated in the reserve program, said Glenn McFadden, who heads a 170-member detachment in St. Louis.

The reservists, which include about 60 from the Southeast Missouri area, will leave Friday and Monday for approximately a week's training at Fort Dix, N.J. before joining Operation Desert Shield.

The unit's members consist of about 90 physicians, 200 nurses and other medical personnel, called to staff a 500-bed hospital.

Sacha said he won't get official word concerning his latest request for a waiver for seven to 10 days following his appearance before the military panel.

"If it's turned down again, I'll probably know sooner," he said. "I'm praying and hoping against that."