Westfield, NJ —

In New Jersey the political debate over Iraq is becoming less abstract and more personal as the state prepares to see most of its 7,500 member National Guard sent overseas. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more.

On a recent Saturday morning in Westfield. The whole town has converged on the National Guard Armory to flip, serve and eat pancakes all to raise money for the families of National Guard members bound for Iraq.

Major General Reith is the adjutant general of the New Jersey National Guard.

REITH: This is the largest and biggest deployment since World War II. And right now about 65 percent of the total Army National Guard in New Jersey is mobilized and deployed.

At $6 a plate the pancake breakfast will clear $17,000 dollars. And it’s needed to keep the lights on and the mortgage current in the homes of some weekend warriors turned full-time combat soldiers. General Reith says for one in five Guard families’ activation means real economic hardship.

REITH: Perhaps the biggest challenge is the fact is that if you are on active duty you have a Federal installation where all your needs and cares are taken care of Our families are out in all the communities and because of that they don’t have the same structure to support them on a day to day basis.

Children take turns playing on an Guard Humvee as an army of High School kids in apparel styles ranging from Gidget to Goth wait on tables.

Hand painted signs reading "Come Home Soon and GO USA" ring the cavernous hall. But presence at the event by no means meant support for the war. There was room for nuance even after two helping of pancakes and sausage.

WOMAN: We live in Westfield and we want to support the troops and we appreciate all the help they are giving to the country. We wish they didn’t have to go.... You can support the troops, but you don’t have to necessarily have to support the fact that we went to war.

The pancake breakfast was the first time the incumbent 7th District Republican Congressman Mike Ferguson and his Democratic Challenger, retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Steve Borzack were under the same roof. After serving in Iraq he switched parties from Republican to Democrat so he could challenge President Bush’s approach on Iraq. Ferguson wholeheartedly embraces what he believes is taking the fight to the terrorists.

The candidates faced off at the Raritan Community College. It would be the only public debate between the candidates. It was standing room only for the crowd of 400 who wanted answers on where the candidates stood on the draft.

Congressman Ferguson did his best to put them at ease.

FERGUSON: There is no reason for a draft in our country today and there will be no draft…..there is no plan for a draft and there is no need for a draft…..when the Generals tell us that we are going to need a draft then we we’ll have to have that conversation with the American people….we should be proud of our all volunteer force.

Brozack attacked the Bush administration for coercing military service with its over reliance on the national guard and the reserve. He believes the invasion of Iraq was a reckless gamble in which the government is failing to provide basics like armored Humvees.

BROZACK: We do have a draft today. It is a backdoor draft….. where the men and women that are on our active reserve and national guard component have no choice….. Today we have men and women not 17, 18, 19 years old but 25 to 45 years old that have no choice but to be brought on active duty again. And guess what instead of it being 12 to 15 months which you are initially told it is going to be it becomes 24 months or longer.

New Jersey has lost 32 residents in combat, including 4 Guardsmen killed last June. Top officer of the Jersey guard, General Reith says from his vantage point morale still remains high with troops serving in Guantonimo, the Sinai, Iraq and Afghanistan. But he concedes there are still some logistics and supply problems in Iraq.

REITH: There is no question there is still a shortage of armored up humvees. The production line is going 'twenty four seven' and there still is a shortage of.

A wife of a long time National Guardsmen ready for deployment says her household is already subsidizing a war effort she thinks is misguided and poorly planned.

WIFE: I know that my husband has needed many things and has had to purchase them himself meaning binoculars that they were told they should have and he called me up and asked me to look them up on the internet. They were $700 binoculars that he had to purchase himself. He called me up another day and said I need you to look up a site on the internet. I pulled it up and it was a site for scopes for machine guns. I said you got to be kidding me. I said this is something you need and we have to purchase it. It was an item between $1,000 and $2,000, that’s a lot of pancakes.

She says she thinks the public is oblivious to what Guard families facing combat deployment endure. WIFE: Every single day I have to deal with kids crying that they don’t want to go to school. I have straight A students coming home saying I can’t deal with school I can’t think….Why does Daddy have to go back”

HENNELY:Has this changed your attitude about politics?

WIFE: In past elections I would have, if I was doing something, I would have said ok maybe I don’t need to get out there. I always try to but I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary. I wouldn’t miss election day this year if my life depended on it.

Her husband will be shipping out sometime soon no matter who captures the White House.

For WNYC I am Bob Hennelly