Staff Sergeant Doreen Johnson of the New York National Guard said she wants to serve her country in Iraq, especially at a time when troop levels are dangerously low. The problem is, the National Guard isn’t letting her.

Instead of completing her wartime training at Fort Benning, Ga., and shipping out to Iraq, Sergeant Johnson of the New York National Guard is mired in a legal battle over her right to serve in the Army.

On November 18, the 13-year veteran of the guard was given orders to mobilize and to prepare to leave for Fort Benning.

Six days later, the chief of staff of the 53rd Troop Command informed her that he was recommending that she be removed from the Active-Guard Reserve program and that she wouldn’t be mobilizing with the 145th Maintenance Company in Kingsbridge, the Bronx. She would have been a supply sergeant in Iraq, keeping track of inventory.

“I trained for it, and I’ve signed on the dotted line,” said Sergeant Johnson, a spry, compact woman. “Whenever they need someone, I’m there.”

In his letter recommending her dismissal, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Bresnahan said Sergeant Johnson “brought discredit upon herself” by wrongfully accepting housing allowance payments while she was living in government quarters between September 1998 and December 2002.

During that period, the federal government paid her an average of more than $1,300 a month in housing allowance while providing her free government housing at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn and Mitchel Housing in East Meadow, N.Y.

By the time Department of Defense accountants figured out the error, she had collected more than $66,000 in wrongful payments. She is now paying back the debt to the government in installments of $1,280 a month.

Her lawyer, Gary Port, a Judge Advocate General officer in the Army Reserves who is handling her case as a civilian attorney, acknowledges that Sergeant Johnson “screwed up.” Meanwhile, he is accusing the New York National Guard of illegally rescinding her mobilization orders.

Mr. Port said the 53rd Troop Command didn’t have the authority to rescind the orders if it didn’t first get permission from Fort Benning. “Staff Sergeant Johnson does not belong to you, but to the Active Duty Mobilization site,” he wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Bresnahan in a letter dated December 1.

Sergeant Johnson said authority over her was transferred to Fort Benning on November 24, the reporting date for mobilization.

Mr. Port told The New York Sun that he has contacted Fort Benning to find out if they gave the green light to Lieutenant Colonel Bresnahan’s orders, but said he has not gotten a response. He said the New York National Guard has ignored his requests for information.

“If she has suffered a loss of honor, then send her to Iraq and let her earn it back,” he said.

A spokesman for the New York National Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fanning, wouldn’t comment on the case, saying the agency is “not allowed to be specific publicly on any personnel information.”

The New York National Guard’s decision to block Sergeant Johnson’s transfer comes at a time when the Army National Guard is falling short in its recruitment efforts – partly due to its heavy involvement in the war in Iraq – and has sharply increased enlistment bonuses to attract more soldiers.

The Army National Guard reportedly comprises about 40% of the troops in Iraq. About 3,500 New York National Guard members are on federal active duty participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Mr. Port said he is considering taking legal action against the guard by asking a federal court to order it to allow her to comply with the mobilization orders. Sergeant Johnson said she wants to take her case to federal court but is currently unable to afford such legal action. After receiving her orders, Sergeant Johnson gave up her Brooklyn apartment and is now living in a hotel with financial assistance from friends, she said. She has been transferred to the 107th Support Group and claims to be doing “gopher work.”

Sergeant Johnson, who is divorced and has three children, said her failure to report the housing allowance was the first time she ran afoul of Army regulations. She was forced to leave Fort Hamilton, however, because her sons were causing trouble for the housing unit.

She said they fought with other children and became involved with a gang that was accused of spray-painting graffiti.

Her children are now living in Jacksonville, Fla., with their aunt.