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When Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Casey Bargar was there from 2003 to 2005, the enemy launched mortars several times a day at the base 50 miles north of Baghdad, giving it the nickname.

"I'm stuck in an office now," said Bargar, 28, a Titusville native who monitors activity beyond Anaconda's "wire" to help deploy forces. "It's the same thing every day. It's kind of boring. This is where I can make a difference before something happens. I guess."

Despite the tedium, Bargar will re-enlist during a ceremony there today marking the Army Reserve's 100th anniversary. After missing its recruitment goals for two straight years, the Reserve exceeded its goal in 2007 and has more than 200,000 soldiers, many of whom serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

they Some citizen-soldiers, like Bargar, have served on the front line. Others, such as Andrea Sokolowski, 24, of Harrison have provided administrative support in Iraq. More than 22,000 reserves are overseas. An additional 10,000 serve active domestic tours.

Bargar and Sokolowski are members of the Coraopolis-based 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, which Brig. Gen. Gregory E. Couch commands from Anaconda.

Col. Jack Skelly called the 316th a first-of-its-kind unit in the Army, part of a move to enable Reserve units to be deployed directly to war.

"That didn't happen before a year and a half ago," said Skelly, a 28-year Reserve veteran from Harmony in Butler County who owns a manufacturers representatives firm. "The active Army has enough support for the initial entry into a war. But about 75 percent of support sustainment is done by the Reserves."

Among other responsibilities, the 316th supplies ammunition, food and fuel as well as trains Iraq's security forces. It has 400 soldiers from 42 states and three countries. About a third of those soldiers have previous combat experience.

Bargar is one of those. He said he wants to reach 20 years in the Reserve to maximize his pension and benefits. He is scheduled for promotion to first sergeant this year, his 12th in the Reserve.

"Even in high school, I always wanted to join," said Bargar, whose civilian job is maintaining Army Reserve equipment and vehicles. "The Reserve lets you go home after work and do what I want."

Increasing death and casualty counts and quicker redeployments to war zones haven't dampened Sokolowski's enthusiasm for the Reserve. Nor did the wounds suffered by her brother, Matt, a military policeman, when a roadside bomb in Iraq exploded in July.

"That made me realize how special the military really is," she said. Her brother continues to recover from shrapnel wounds. "We're a big family. Everyone is each other's family more than any job out there could possibly be."

Sokolowski's tour involves doing civilian payroll for the 316th in Coraopolis. She works there 40 hours a week and waits tables in a restaurant several nights a week.

Sokolowski was in her first month at the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in Cleveland when she was called for her 12-month tour at Camp Anaconda in 2005-06.

"My focus changed in Iraq," she said. "Over there, you realize your job really makes a difference. It's hard to explain, I guess."

Recruiters are trying to find more people who share that attitude during this "difficult environment" for attracting reservists, said S. Douglas Smith, a spokesman at the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky.

"The fact is, only three out of 10 people within the recruitable age are fully qualified," said Smith referring to those between 17 (with parental consent) and 42. "The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made recruiting difficult. Some of the decline in female recruits is attributable to the wars."

Parents, teachers, coaches and other family members "are concerned about the welfare of their loved ones, and they don't want to see them deployed or harmed in any way," said Dale Terry, a spokesman at the Pittsburgh Recruiting Battalion, Downtown.

From 2000 to 2007, the number of people who enlisted in the Reserve through the Pittsburgh Recruiting Battalion fluctuated between 309 (2002) and 1,041 (2000), Terry said. Last year, 749 recruits signed up. Terry could not provide regional recruitment goals.

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