Field notes
Reports from Latino soldiers as the nation goes to war

By Jane DiLeo
Adelante staff writer

Missourians in the military are spending their days in uncertainty.
Lt. Col. Christina Vasquez Case, Sgt. Ernie Reyes and Army Pfc. Mario Cortez can only watch how the situation with Iraq progresses without knowing whether they will be uprooted from their homes.

Christina Vasquez-Case

Vasquez Case serves as an assistant state equal opportunity advisor for the Missouri Army National Guard. In addition to training and duty of one weekend a month, Vasquez Case is working on her doctorate in rural sociology at the University of Missouri.
Her family has been affected by war in the past and present. Vasquez Case is a Desert Storm veteran and her husband is currently in Bosnia.
She might be called to duty, but she tries not to worry about it. “I go about my daily life and don’t dwell on it,” she said. “If you are [called to action], you go and do your job.”

Ernie Reyes

Reyes is a Marine stationed in Columbia for a Marine Commissioning Enlisted Program. The program allows him to work towards his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at MU and remain on active duty with his unit. If sent, Reyes will be commissioned as an officer.
Reyes has been in the Marines for nine years and served in Bosnia. “Basically, we are just backing up our president no matter what his decision is,” he said. “That is our job.”

Mario Cortez

Cortez has been called to duty and will leave within a month.
He will leave his wife and his 2-year-old to go serve. All he can think about is getting back, he said.
Cortez will miss many people and many things, especially “not being about to sleep in my own bed at night.”