Sending young men off to war can wear on a person.

It is even more wearing when you are sending young men and women - and combinations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, sets of parents or single parents.

Add to that people you have known for years and some you grew up with. Blend in a certain amount of "some gave all," and that job can age a person far beyond their years.

However, for Sturgis native Michael Gorman, those days are gone - or will be, at midnight. Maj. Gen. Gorman retires today as the adjutant general of the South Dakota National Guard.

He is the 19th TAG - The Adjutant General - of the Guard, and his years of service have been among the most difficult years a South Dakota general has served. He has sent more than 3,000 men and women off to two war zones - Iraq and Afghanistan - and separated families for duties in various locations throughout the United States.

Then, there have been the wounded - and the half-dozen funerals.

Gov. Mike Rounds, in February 2003, selected Gorman to replace outgoing Maj. Gen. Philip Killey. The appointment included serving as the Secretary of Military and Veterans Affairs for the state and a member of the governor's cabinet.

Gorman has roots in military service. His father, called to active duty as a member of South Dakota's 109th Engineer Battalion in World War II, spent two years as a prisoner of war.

"He must have joined the Guard in the mid '30s," Gorman said Friday. He said that after the war and his release as a POW, his father never spoke much about those times.

It was enough, however, to encourage the 17-year-old Sturgis High School senior to join the same unit years later.

"If I was going to have to go to Vietnam, I wanted to be part of a unit," Gorman said.

In 2003, Gorman assumed command of the 4,500-member Guard as individual units were receiving deployment notices for service in Iraq, Afghanistan and stateside locations.

"It never got any easier - in fact, it got harder," Gorman said about presiding over the mobilizations. "No matter what I say, here, to families, they are just words. I think that's why I decided to retire. You begin to wonder how much you mean it," Gorman said.

Even more difficult were the calls that generally came at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m.

"Because of the time difference, that's when they came," Gorman said. They were the calls that prevented the general from going back to sleep, and they meant he would be calling the governor in a few hours.

They were the calls telling him that one or more of his soldiers had died. It happened about a half-dozen times.

"It always seemed to be on a Saturday morning. He (Rounds) would want to know right away what was going on, how the family was, were there kids?" Gorman said.

"The first thing I had to do was talk to the people who had to notify the families. We don't always have the 'Ozzie and Harriet' families we used to, so sometimes, it took two or three notifications."

Gorman says he takes some some solace that informing the families was done right and everything possible was done to help the families if they needed it.

"That's the hard part of this job - making sure you have covered your bases," Gorman said.

Gorman said military officials at the mobilization sites always complimented the South Dakota soldiers and airmen for coming there well trained. He said he heard the same from the field commanders in charge of his units.

"Early on, we sent more Guards per capita than any other state because we had the types of units they needed, and ours were trained," Gorman said. "You're only as good in war as the training you've received."

He added that many of the deployed South Dakota Guard ended up doing missions outside their training but managed to receive compliments even in those situations.

"They did what they were told to do. They knew how to conduct themselves in a war zone," Gorman said.

Gorman said he never aspired to be the adjutant general.

"I never dreamed as a young officer I would have this job. It was probably 15 minutes after I had the job that I set my sights on becoming. When it falls on you, you do the best you can.

"Preparation is only part of it. This is where luck and preparation meet," Gorman said.

Gorman said the best parts of the job included dealing with the soldiers and their families, presenting awards and traveling.

"I've been to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel. In addition, I always hear, 'You've got some great troops here.' That's the rewarding part of the job," Gorman said.

He said it was also rewarding to see the look of satisfaction of the faces of his soldiers.

He said South Dakota doesn't have any trouble recruiting soldiers.

"Even today, after 9/11, the kids tell us they want to do more than fight forest fires," he said.

And what about the current generation of recruits?

"I'm not worried about this generation. They may play funny games and have body piercing, but they want to serve their country," Gorman said.

In addition to the deployments, Gorman has been involved with the restructuring of the military, including the Guard. In days past, each branch worked independently of the others, but in today's world, in which your air support may come from an aircraft hundreds of miles out to sea and your initial attack from Marines helicoptered in, the military decided several years ago the services needed more close cooperation.

"If you'd told me that I'd be doing that transformation when I got the job, I might not have taken it," Gorman said. "I'm pretty much a traditionalist and thought we should always have what we had. But I will tell you, I think we got some of the better missions out there."

Being in charge of all military affairs for the state, Gorman learned early on that there were areas in South Dakota underserved by support issues. He said that when troops come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, teams were waiting at a mobilization site to tell them what entitlements they had coming. But that support was lacking in areas such as Huron, Milbank and some areas in central South Dakota.

"We had to go to the state and say, "What can you do to help us bring these services to middle South Dakota?" Gorman said.

He said everyone came to help.

"There are now numbers you can call to get help for such things as family counseling and talking to a professional about a specific situation. It's not restricted to Guard members, either. If you were a Marine and finally decide you need to talk to someone, it's there for you," he said.

The bigger issue is that America needs to stand behind its soldiers.

"In the eyes of the American people, that attack of 9/11 has decoupled from the war in Iraq," Gorman said. "What I hear from our soldiers and airmen is that we are making a difference there. Especially our Guard people, because they bring different skills with them and can help build a community infrastructure. Plus, we have family members serving together."

Gorman says it isn't up to him to question what the country is doing.

"My job is to do what I'm told to do," he said. "And, it never comes out the way you think. The enemy has a vote, too - although we're trying to take that away from them."