|
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
|
Printer-Friendly Version
U.S. ARMY'S STOP-LOSS ORDERS UP DRAMATICALLY OVER
LAST YEAR -- Thousands of new stop-loss orders
were
issued to keep soldiers from leaving the service
after combat
tours were extended from 12 to 15 months last
spring.
Story here...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/n
ation/la-na-stoploss9-2008may09,0,851069.story
Story below:
-------------------------
U.S. Army's 'stop-loss' orders up dramatically
over last year
The jump coincides with the extension of combat
tours from 12 to 15 months.
By Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army
involuntarily under the military's controversial "stop-loss" program has
risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year,
officials said Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was briefed about the program by Army
officials who said that thousands of new stop-loss orders were issued to
keep soldiers from leaving the service after Gates ordered combat tours
extended from 12 to 15 months last spring.
The Army has resorted to involuntary extensions of soldiers' enlistment
terms to prevent them from leaving immediately before a combat tour or in
the middle of a deployment.
Army officials have argued that the policy is necessary to ensure that
they are not forced to send inadequately trained soldiers and unprepared
units into war.
However, many soldiers subjected to the stop-loss
policy consider it a backdoor draft. Critics argue that once soldiers have
completed the enlistment period they agreed to, they should be allowed to
return home. The involuntary retention program is so unpopular that it
helped inspire a recent movie called "Stop-Loss."
The number of soldiers held in the Army under the stop-loss program
reached a high in March 2005 of 15,758. That number steadily declined
through May 2007, when it hit 8,540. But since then, the number of
soldiers subjected to stop-loss orders began to increase again, reaching
12,235 in March 2008.
In April 2007, Gates ordered combat tours extended to support the U.S.
troop buildup and to address concerns about uneven tour lengths. But
because many soldiers were due to leave the service at the end of their
combat tours, Army officials had to order them under stop-loss provisions
to remain.
 In
a news conference Thursday, Gates said he believed the Army had good
reasons for using the stop-loss policy.
"They don't like it any better than I do. But it has proven necessary in
order to maintain the force," Gates said.
Still, he said, use of the policy "is an issue. It troubles me." Top
Defense officials have pushed the Army to reduce the use of stop-loss
orders.
"When somebody expects to leave at a given time, and you tell them they
can't do that, it's got to have an impact on them. And that's the part
that troubles me," Gates said.
Soldiers subjected to stop-loss orders are often those whose enlistment
period ends during a combat tour or who are due to leave within 90 days of
the scheduled start of a combat tour. Without the stop-loss policy, the
Army would have to replace those soldiers with new ones who had not
trained with the unit.
Between 2002 and 2007, 58,300 soldiers were given stop-loss orders,
forcing them to remain in the service past the end of their enlistment
periods.
The number of soldiers serving under the stop-loss program will begin to
decline again in September, Gates said. By then, there will be fewer U.S.
troops in Iraq and Army combat tours will return to 12 months.
Army officials could not predict when they would no longer need to resort
to stop-loss orders. But as troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan shrink,
the policy will become less necessary, officials say.
The Army first used a stop-loss program in 1990 during the run-up to the
Persian Gulf War. In 2002, the Army instituted stop-loss orders for
certain specialties, a policy that ended in 2003. The current stop-loss
program was put in place just before the invasion of Iraq.
Gates said that about half of the soldiers kept in the Army under the
stop-loss policy are noncommissioned officers who hold important
leadership positions, at the rank of sergeant and above, and cannot easily
be replaced.
"And so if you pull them, if they left a unit, it would leave a pretty
gaping hole while still deployed," Gates said.
julian.barnes@latimes.com
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
Don't forget to read all of today's VA
News Flashes (click here)
Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage
email Larry
(go
back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page) |
Military
Medical Malpractice
Legal
Network
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
|
