When Seattle police Sgt. Chris Fowler's National Guard unit mobilized in late 2003, the 40-year-old traded more than police blues for army camouflage.

He transformed from one of 14 day-shift SWAT-unit members into Lt. Col. Fowler, commander of 720 soldiers in the Washington Army National Guard's 81st Brigade Combat Team, which included units from Seattle to Spokane.

The call-up of the 4,500-member 81st marked the largest mobilization of the state's citizen soldiers since World War II.

When his deployment ended in February, Fowler returned to the Seattle Police Department, taking his former place in the hierarchy. It was, he noted, quite a bit lower than his comparable slot in the Army.

Fowler's experience mirrors that of thousands of other National Guard and Reserve members who left for military service and assumed a far different standing than their 9-to-5 lives. And while they were gone, someone back home took their place in the pecking order.

In perhaps no other profession is the switch more evident than the conversion from law enforcement to the military, since both are organized into specific ranks.

81st Brigade Combat Team


The team, formed in 1968, includes armored, infantry and cavalry battalions.

Its 4,500 members — 3,400 from Washington state — have a range of ages, into the 50s.

The team deployed in a massive send-off at the Tacoma dome in February 2004. It returned in the spring of this year.

Its members served in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Members killed: Nine; three from Washington, five from California and one from Michigan.

Wounded in action: 212.

Missions completed: 9,075 combat patrols, 77 combat raids, 197 cordon and searches, 162 combat engagements.

Employment and workplace experts say transitioning from military to civilian life presents unique stresses. And the returning Iraq war guardsmen are entering uncharted territory.

"The active military come home and they are still in the same work environment. The Guard has never been deployed for so long and come back," said Mary Graham, senior vice president of the National Mental Health Association, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

"In some ways, men [in the National Guard] are finally confronting what women have been seeing coming back from maternity leave," Graham said.

But Fowler was lucky.

City civil-service rules and federal law guaranteed Fowler his old job. And being a cop again comes as welcome relief from a year of overseeing patrols and firefights, he said.

"In Iraq, I set policy. I set procedures. I wasn't the guy on the ground going through the door. Here, I do that," said Fowler, seated in a lounge at SWAT headquarters on Airport Way.

"Being in charge isn't as great and wonderful as people think it is. I'm not jealous that I'm not in charge of half the department by any means."

ROTC to Korea

Fowler was a National Guard member long before he joined the Seattle Police Department.

A graduate of Bellevue's Interlake High School in 1982, Fowler earned a psychology degree from the University of Washington four years later.

In college, Fowler enrolled in ROTC and the National Guard simultaneously. He enjoyed the skills and discipline of the military, he said.

Fowler spent three years on active duty, spending time in Korea and other posts. In 1992, he joined the Seattle police.

He worked as a narcotics officer and patrolman and, five years ago, was involved in a controversial police shooting that polarized the city.

On April 12, 2000, Fowler tried to talk down a mentally ill man named David John Walker as Walker skipped down Taylor Avenue North. A TV cameraman captured the moment Walker, an African American who had fired a gun in a grocery parking lot, was shot by another officer.

Seattle Police Department's Firearms Review Board later commended Fowler for trying to end the situation without violence, but the incident drew criticism from civil-rights and minority-community leaders who complained police had used excessive force.

In the years since, Fowler thought a lot about the Walker shooting and its aftermath, particularly when he dealt with situations in Iraq that could enflame the local population.

"You could see the backlash [with Walker]. The tactical situation was justified but there was a backlash, for whatever reason," Fowler said.

"That became part of my thought process [in Iraq], and that was my job, to consider what we call the second- and third-order effects. The Army harped on those, and rightly so. We talked through what may occur two or three branches down from the major operation."

Fowler's unit was attached to the First Calvary Division, patrolling the southeast section of Baghdad. The unit was billeted in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.

His primary task was to build local infrastructure, which wasn't easy, considering the neighborhoods had no sewage lines or garbage disposal to begin with.

But there were plenty of pitched battles, and three men under his command were killed. Fowler spoke at their battlefield funerals and wrote letters to their families back home.

"They don't sit you down and tell you how to write a condolence letter. It was one of the most difficult things I had to do," he said. "Fortunately, it didn't become a habit."

Keeping in the loop

While in Iraq, Fowler occasionally checked in with friends at the Police Department to keep his name in the loop.

He had been promised he could return to SWAT, but, in the meantime, one of the SWAT officers on his team took his place as acting sergeant.

In Baghdad, Fowler said he thought about the prospect of being replaced.

"Of course I worried about that," he said. "But it was a load off my mind to know my spot would be available when I got back."

On average, there are eight to 10 officers on military leave at the Seattle Police Department, said Assistant Chief Jim Pugel.

That's a small percentage of the total force of 1,250, he said.

And when those officers return, the department makes an effort to bring them up to speed on changes in procedure, equipment and case law.

Whether officers are taken off the force because of National Guard service or jury duty, the department routinely uses fill-ins who know their job is only temporary, Pugel said.

"It's a pretty adaptable organization," he said. "The downside [to employing part-time soldiers] is the high risk that they are exposed to injury or death. Once they return, we have a much better employee."

The precise number of law-enforcement officers in the Washington National Guard isn't known because the military doesn't track civilian employment.

But cops aren't the only professionals who experience a cultural shift when they go on military duty.

Graham, of the mental-health association, said her group has been flooded with requests from chambers of commerce and human-resource directors to help sort through back-to-work issues.

She said early trends indicate veterans are most concerned about their roles in the company or organization when they go back to their former jobs.

"Many will stop and think about a career change," she said. "With others, it may make them appreciate their [former] routine."

Fowler, whose wife works for the Bellevue Police Department, said one of his biggest concerns was how his two young sons would relate to him when he returned.

But, he said, "it's like I haven't been gone."

And so, at least for now, the legacy of his deployment in Iraq has been the gift of perspective.

"You learn how to prioritize. You don't get excited about stuff as much as you used to," said Fowler, adding: "It hasn't been a bad thing."

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com