Reservists endure
financial hardships

Deployment can force the self-
employed to go out of business

Keola Neumann operates an ice cream franchise at Kapolei, two clothing businesses and is a self-employed mental health counselor.

He also is a first lieutenant in the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade and leads a platoon of 30 medics in Headquarters and Headquarters Company.

The mobilization of the 29th Brigade for a year's duty on Aug. 16 meant that Neumann, 31, will make a significant financial sacrifice until he returns from Iraq in 2005. He left for Texas yesterday and with 2,200 other citizen soldiers of the 29th Brigade will be in Iraq for a year beginning in March.

"I am taking a huge hit," said Neumann, who has been in the National Guard for eight years. "I am making a lot of sacrifices, but it's all relative. All the soldiers are giving up something. My problem is no bigger than any other soldier."

While deployment often means financial hardship for reservists, federal law mandates that they be allowed to return to their employer. However, for the self-employed, deployment can be even more painful and can sometimes mean the loss of a business.

Guard officials did not have a count of how many self- employed business people are among the 2,200 soldiers.

Staff Sgt. Ray Fermin, who is a member of the 29th Brigade's support battalion and has been a citizen soldier for 17 years, has been an independent businessman for four years since opening his company, Med One. The Pearl City Industrial Park company services medical equipment for local hospitals and the military and employs four full-time and part-time workers.

Fermin, 36, said he has asked a friend to fill in for him while he is on active duty.

"He's been with me since 2002," said Fermin, a 1986 Farrington High School graduate. "He's been my right-hand man."

Anticipating the possibility that his unit would be placed on active duty, Fermin integrated his friend into his operations last year by giving him more responsibility in running the business.

Neumann said that as a lieutenant making $4,000 a month, his salary will be cut by more than half.

He also might have to close the Kapolei Bubbies ice cream store if his wife, Michele, cannot manage it by herself during the 15 months he will be away.

Neumann also is selling his shares of Fuman Chu and Barefoot League -- two sports and contemporary apparel businesses he operates -- to his partners.

Neumann, who graduated from Humboldt State University, said the deployment might also jeopardize his plan to get an advance degree in clinical psychology under an Army-sponsored program.

But most of all, Neumann said he will miss spending time with his 2-year-old daughter, Kyla.

"She's at the rascal age," said Neumann. "I can't buy back the time I will lose not being with her.

"But I have a certain sense of duty and honor. I don't want to let anyone down. I volunteered to join the Guard. Duty and honor -- that is what is making me go."