Among today's Navy Reserve, there are mid-level enlistees who are company vice presidents and small business owners. These are individuals who have what Commander Keith Powell describes as full-time lives, and who want to serve their country, but not full-time.

"It's a completely different level of experience that you don't run into on the active side of this pay grade," Powell, commanding officer of Navy Operational Support Center, New London, said.

In other words, it is the Christopher Stankiewiczs of the reserves that make it what it is today.

"Chris is your model reservist," Powell said. "He has an important job at Electric Boat, but still finds time to serve his country."

Lt. Cmdr. Stankiewicz, 35, is a project manager at EB who oversees nuclear projects on the waterfront at Naval Submarine Base New London, and he's assigned to Coastal Riverine Squadron 8 as the executive officer of Charlie Company, based out of Groton. He's also working to secure his master's in business administration through Norwich University.

"He's a great example of how much we provide to Navy," Powell said.

Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the reserves today is a greater asset than it was in past, according to Powell.

"Absolutely it's changed," Powell said when asked about the transition over ther past 100 years, adding that it's become a "much more ready force."

During the Cold War, for example, the reservists' mission "wasn't so defined," Powell said. They were there for large-scale mobilizations compared to today where they're used "to prepare surge capability overseas and stateside," he said, and it's being done in a "much more effective manner."  

The Navy, in particular, has filled a lot of "augmentee assignments," Powell said, from the Army and the Air Force, "which have sourced out a lot of requirements to the Navy." The Navy has been able to fill these assignments with reservists, of which there are 60,000 nationwide.

Stankiewicz is originally from Montville but currently lives in Niantic. His grandfather, a Navy sailor, and his father, an Army National guardsman, inspired him to serve.

After graduating from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 2002 with a Bachelor degree in marine engineering, Stankiewicz was commissioned into the reserves and went to work as a nuclear engineer for EB, where he's worked in various positions for 15 years.

In the reserves, he started as a strategic sealift officer with the Military Sealift Command,. He was based out of Connecticut, but would travel to Norfolk, Va., and San Diego, Calif. He is now with the Coastal Riverine Squadron 8, which spends much of its time training sailors to achieve certain qualifications and mobilization readiness. The squadron also escorts submarines going out on missions by providing force protection. This is a recent effort by the reserves, which took over submarine escorts duties from the Coast Guard two years ago.

"This has been a very successful mission for our command due to the work and time put in by our sailors," Stankiewicz said.

This is the best job Stankiewicz has had in the reserves so far, he said, because of the people, command and leadership team, which all work together.

At the end of October 2014, Stankiewicz returned from his first overseas deployment to Kabul, Afghanistan. He spent seven months in Kabul as part of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. Stationed at the International Security Assistance Force command in Kabul, he worked in the Security Assistance office as a section chief.

Part of Operation Enduring Freedom dictated that U.S. military officials would train and support Afghan security forces to fight the Taliban, and  other enemies, in order to help them become sustainable going forward. Stankiewicz's mission was to acquire and deliver equipment to the Afghan security forces which includes the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army. This included defense weapons, ammunition, vehicles and other support equipment. Stankiewicz had daily interaction with his Afghan counterparts, meeting with them at the depots and their military bases where the equipment would arrive.

He described the relationship between the Afghans and Americans as a "two-way relationship."

"We needed their support and they needed our support," he said, adding that because of the language barrier he used interpreters to talk to the Afghans.

Face-to-face meetings, Stankiewicz explained, are part of the culture there, so "both sides got to know each other personally, and built a working relationship in support of the mission."

At home, Stankiewicz's family, particularly his wife of more than three, Erin, worried often about him. She would wait for the next call or the next opportunity to video chat to be assured that he was safe. While in Kabul, the couple mainly communicated by phone.

August 5, 2014 was arguably the most difficult day of Stankiewicz's deployment. It was then that he lost his "superior and friend," Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, the first U.S. general to die in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Greene died as the result of an attack on an Afghan training facility about five miles away from where Stankiewicz was stationed. A fellow New Englander, Greene and Stankiewicz were both Boston Red Sox fans, and the two became close while overseas.  

Other soldiers who Stankiewicz had worked closely with were also wounded in that attack.

While it was a difficult time, Stankiewicz said, "The command rallied together to support each other and establish courage to keep the mission going because that's what General Greene would want us to do."

Outside the facility, there were numerous attacks that would happen on a frequent basis, Stankiewicz said, so he had to be ready and prepared to deal with any situation. That was only reinforced when the attack happened. Whenever he was outside of the wire driving through Kabul, his adrenaline, he said "was high as its ever going to be."

The mission itself made Stankiewicz and other U.S. soldiers in Kabul targets. Afghanistan's enemies were unhappy with the support the U.S. was providing to the Afghan security forces, which made them and other coalition forces "targets for hostile opposition," he said.

Stankiewicz is humble about his own merits, mentioning only in passing that he'd won an award for his service. But he isn't shy about giving thanks where due. Erin, his parents, Donald and Suzette, his in-laws, Jeffrey and Susan and his sister Kimberly have all been supportive. Not to mention, the support he's received from EB colleagues, who sent him care packages, as well as the community.

The events of 9/11 also created "a huge demand signal," Commander Powell said, for those who want to serve the country, but who don't want to do it in a full-time capacity. 

While Stankiewicz has a full time job, at the same time, he said, he's honored to be among the men and women that make up the military. When asked how he balances a full-time job, being in the reserves and his personal life, Stankiewicz said time management is key, and that family comes first.

"Family support is really the most important thing," he said. "It would be difficult to achieve all that I have without such a strong support system."

Powell wonders if everyday citizens understand that their neighbor–dentist, school teacher, or in the case of Stankiewicz, nuclear project manager–could be a reservist "because they're doing it quietly."

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: JuliaSBergman