Marching orders - again

McMakin

going to Europe next month

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Going to war is nothing new for Larry and Rayan McMakin.

Larry has been a military man much of his life. He joined the Oregon National Guard when he was a 17-year-old high school student, attended monthly drills and did his two weeks of yearly active duty before he got out and moved to Northern California.

Twelve years ago, McMakin was in an inactive drill status in the IRR (Ready Reserve) when he received orders to report to active duty status for Operation Desert Storm. He went to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., got his hair cut short, wrote his will and did in-processing paperwork.

Seventeen days later, he was discharged after the ground war ended. There was no longer any need for his specialty -- clearing land mine fields as a combat engineer.

Rayan (Lauer), a 1986 New Ulm High graduate, was a lab technician with the 352nd Evacuation Hospital Unit of the Army Reserve in California when she was recalled to active duty for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. She worked with the American Red Cross blood donation program in a Tacoma, Wash., hospital.

After the war, Rayan met Larry while both were working for a software distribution company in Novato, Calif.

The McMakins now live in New Ulm. Larry works at the Sears store. Rayan does medical record keeping at New Ulm Medical Center Hospital. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Lauren.

Larry drills with the Minnesota National Guard 125th Artillery unit in St. Peter. About a week ago, he got a call informing him that he was one of 500 Minnesota Army National Guard soldiers to be activated next month to augment security at U.S. military facilities in Europe.

Soldiers will undergo two months of security training before leaving the country for six months. Soldiers will be sent to England, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Turkey.

The forces are part of 140,000 Guard and Reserve members called to active duty in the past two years to battle global terrorism.

National Guard troops are in a high state of readiness, according to Major General Eugene R. Andreotti, adjutant general of the Minnesota Army and Air National Guard.

"Our biggest challenge will be to help family members who must get along without parents, when there are bills to pay. Jobs will be held," the general said. "Employees can make their own decisions about what benefits to continue until Guard and Reserve members return in March."

A coordinated family support network will be established, but communities must help its own residents.

"We need to help neighbors, whether it means helping to paint a house or working in a hospice," the general said. "We need to serve our community. It's all important."

Meanwhile, the McMakins are trying to tell explain the news to their daughter.

"We told her that daddy will leave soon and come back when the snow melts next spring," Rayan said. "I think she understands but she said she doesn't want her daddy to leave."