Four Navy reservists headed to Mideast

Cape police officer was shocked when he learned he would be deployed.

Military deployment overseas is nothing new to Cape Girardeau police patrolman David Tucker. During 10 years of active military duty, he spent a lot of time outside the United States.

But when Tucker, a Navy petty officer attached to the Cape Girardeau Naval Reserve Center, recently received orders to be deployed to Iraq, he was shocked.

The 43-year-old master-at-arms has never been deployed in his 15 years as a reserv-ist. But Tucker isn't worried.

His religious faith tells him that he'll be OK unless it's his time to go.

"I guess I'm old-fashioned in this day and age since I still believe in God and country," said Tucker.

Tucker is one of four Navy reservists attached to the Cape Girardeau center to be mobilized for duty in the Middle East, joining five others who have already been tapped for duty in support of military operations.

Petty officers William Wellborn of Chaffee, Mo., Larry Patterson of Jackson, Tucker and Bradley Troutt of Dexter, Mo., will leave for training over the next two months. All four will head to Iraq to assist in policing operations and security at detention facilities.

The four are some of the roughly 150 reservists attached to the Cape Girardeau center. This will be their first deployment to Iraq and is scheduled to last a year.

Lt. Jeremy Freeman, the reserve center's commanding officer, said Naval Reserve deployments are different from the deployments of units like the National Guard 1140th Engineers. Whereas entire Guard units are mobilized, Naval reservists are pulled from across the country due to their area of specialization.

All four local reservists are masters-at-arms, which perform security/policing functions. Freeman said more of these are needed in Iraq to help train Iraqi security forces and to rotate out Americans who are nearing the end of their deployment.

In January and December, three Navy corpsmen attached to Cape Girardeau were mobilized in anticipation of the Iraqi elections and increased violence.

Like those corpsmen, the petty officers being deployed will serve on the ground in Iraq.

In July and August, Petty Officers Clayton Judd of Malden, Mo., and Lonnie LeJeune of Sikeston, Mo., both masters-at -arms, were mobilized and deployed to Kuwait and Bahrain. Mobilized sailors complete two weeks to three months of training before deployment overseas.

Cape Girardeau Police Chief Steve Strong said it always hurts to lose an officer with local experience, even if only for a year.

"He now has the institutional knowledge of having worked in this city," said Strong. "With a new person you won't have that knowledge, so you'll feel the impact."

Tucker will keep his city benefits, such as seniority and raises. He will have an open desk at the police department when he returns.

During the next year, Tucker's mind will be on his family -- his wife Connie, 23-year-old son Merlin and 18-year-old daughter Blondell and others.

Connie Tucker said she's shocked and scared but supports her husband 100 percent.

David Tucker said he'll miss Big Macs and El Torero. But his dedication to serving others -- he was a fireman/first responder before being a policeman -- will carry him through.

"A lot of people over here are against the war and against us being over there. Then you have your extremists who are against everything," said Tucker. "The way I look at it is people who are willing to go over there and do this are the reason they can be able to express their opinions."