Gov. Mark Sanford reported for duty this week at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas to continue his training as a medical evacuation officer in the Air Force Reserve.

Sanford, a captain in the Reserve, arrived Monday in Wichita Falls and will be at the base until the end of next week, said governor's spokesman Chris Drummond.

The governor didn't report for his regular monthly Reserve duty at the Charleston base. But he didn't have to, according to Kenny Pruitt, a Reserve spokesman in Charleston.

"He was en route to school" over the weekend and considered on duty, Pruitt said.

Pruitt couldn't immediately say whether the two-week session would complete the training needed to qualify Sanford for the position.

The governor wasn't around for the beginning of the legislative session on Tuesday, leaving behind an agenda that includes his plans to cut income taxes, restructure state government, broaden education spending choices and retool liability laws.

Sanford joined the Reserve two months before filing for governor in 2002, drawing criticism from some who said it was a play for votes. Sanford has defended it as a genuine interest prodded by family history, his time in Congress and a weekend taking part in Army Rangers maneuvers in North Carolina.

The dual public service roles have brought controversy and a lawsuit that led to a state Supreme Court ruling in Sanford's favor in early 2004, as well as concern that he could be deployed to Iraq while still the state's chief executive officer.

That doesn't seem likely, though. Only three of the 118 reservists in Sanford's 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron are mobilized for duty in the Middle East, and the unit hasn't had more than 40 deployed at one time. Sanford isn't in line for deployment, Pruitt said.

Slightly more than 4,000 of the Air Force Reserve's 76,000 personnel are "mobilized," or called to active duty, said spokesman Lt. Col. Bob Thompson.

In aeromedical units, just under 5 percent have volunteered for the current four-month rotation and slightly more than 2 percent have been mobilized, said spokeswoman Capt. Michele Gill. Since the last rotation, the percentage of volunteers has dropped by a third and the percentage of reservists mobilized has more than doubled.

Crews, such as those made up of nurses or emergency medical technicians, are more likely to be mobilized or volunteer than administrative teams, she said. "There's less of a need for those people right now."