Flying an Army National Guard helicopter over rooftops in Baghdad isn't quite like navigating a police cruiser along the winding roads of Lebanon Township.

      But Erik Rautenberg says his often eventful “part-time” job as a National Guard captain and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot keeps him sharp for his full-time job as a police patrolman in Lebanon Township, where things are usually a bit tamer than Iraq's capital.

      “Lebanon Township is fairly quiet and predictable -- Iraq isn't,” Rautenberg said. “That's a good thing. It means whenever I come back from Iraq, I feel like I'm ready for anything that might happen on the (police) job.”

      Rautenberg, 35, will return to Iraq in a few weeks, his second deployment to the war zone in less than five years. But before Rautenberg ships out, his civilian boss, Police Sgt. John Gale, went to Fort Sill, Okla. on March 12-13 to see two days of his pre-deployment training with the 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion.

      Gale's trip was what's known as a “Boss Lift” and it was sponsored by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), a Department of Defense organization that protects the employment rights of military reservists. One of the ways it does this is by making sure bosses know what their people do when they get called to military duty – whether it's to train at a military base in Oklahoma or to deploy to war in Iraq or Afghanistan.

      Nearly two dozen employers ranging from police commanders like Gale to a hospital administrator to a power company executive to a schools superintendant to the owner of an excavation company boarded a New Jersey Air National Guard KC-135 tanker jet and flew to Oklahoma to watch their employees finish up some of their last-minute training before they leave for Iraq in early April. They are scheduled to finish their Iraq tour in January 2010.

      Before the employers boarded the tanker, Maj. Gen. Glenn K. Rieth, the state adjutant general, told them that by supporting their employees, they are making a direct contribution to the state and nation's defense.

      That's because nearly half of the combat strength of the U.S. military is in the reserves, which includes the National Guard. And unlike the other reserve components, the National Guard can also be activated by the governor in state emergencies.

      “The nation and our state are asking a lot of our citizen soldiers,” Rieth said. For example, two-thirds of the soldiers in the 150th Aviation have served in Iraq at least once before.

      Rautenberg says he and his fellow soldiers learned a lot on their last trip to Iraq, when they were stationed near Tikrit and came under frequent fire whenever they flew.

      “We're going in this time with a lot more knowledge,” said Rautenberg, who has two children, aged 5 and 2.

      Gale, 46, who served in the Marine Corps in the early 1980s before becoming a police officer, said the employer trip to Oklahoma helped him get a better understanding of Rautenberg's military job.

      The employers spent several hours time in the field with their employees as they trained in the ways to recognize roadside bombs, the greatest threat to American service members in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

      “We have a greater appreciation for everything they do,” Gale said after the field training on an unseasonably cold and wet Oklahoma afternoon.

      Now he just wants Rautenberg to do his tour and safely return to the beat in Lebanon Township.

      “We miss him when he's gone,” Gale said. “But the experience he gets in Iraq helps him on the job – he brings a level head to the playing field.”