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| Thursday June 3 2004 12: 10 PM
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June 3, 2004 | WASHINGTON (AP) –-- Thousands of soldiers who had expected to retire or otherwise leave the military will be required to stay if their units are ordered to Iraq or Afghanistan.
The announcement Wednesday, an expansion of a program called "stop-loss," affects units that are 90 days or less from deploying, said Lt. Gen. Frank L. "Buster" Hagenbeck, the Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel. Commanders can make exceptions for soldiers with special circumstances. Otherwise, soldiers won't be able to leave the service or transfer from their units until they return to their home bases after their deployments end. The Army is struggling to find fresh units to continue the occupation of Iraq. Almost every combat unit has faced or will face duty there or in Afghanistan, and increased violence has forced the deployment of an additional 20,000 troops to the Iraq region, straining units even further.
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. Initially, the expanded order will affect several units about to go to Iraq: most of the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, from Fort Drum, N.Y.; the 265th Infantry Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard; the 116th Armored Brigade of the Idaho National Guard; the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment of the Tennessee National Guard, and the 42nd Infantry Division's headquarters staff, from the New York National Guard. The 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, a South Korea-based unit, is expected to deploy later this summer and will be subject to the expanded stop-loss program as well, officials said.
[This is the unit Will is in -- he has been doing "hardship duty" in So. Korea -- before he left for Korea from his tour in Germany (where he and Jenny met) he was home, and Evan Valdez was concieved! She had to phone and email him with the news. Throughout her pregnancy, Jenny was alone here until William's leave; he was here (thank god /dess Evan was late ) for the birth here at the Whidbey Naval Station Hospital. He had to leave way too soon (evan 5 days old), and his COs would not let him stay longer. In retrospect, they (his commanding officers) were already aware he'd not be finish his tour in Korea in the expexted 8+ months, heading for Fort Lewis, WA, but was already slated for removal to Iraq. I think that it was "cruel and unusual" to not be more sensitive to letting him spend more time with his family, especially with the information they now had -- and as this article states, he will not be deployed until late summer, so they easily could have been compassionate and let him have more time (he had requested an extension while here)... this is so wrong to me on so many levels, and on up the food chain to our "Commander in Chief" who never was in a place of conflict in his life...how dare he! (set /rant = off) ...back to the article]
There has been criticism of the program as contrary to the concept of an all-volunteer military force. Soldiers planning to retire and get on with their lives now face more months away from their families and homes. In an opinion piece in Wednesday's New York Times, Andrew Exum, a former Army captain who served under Hagenbeck in the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan, called the treatment "shameful." "Many, if not most, of the soldiers in this latest Iraq-bound wave are already veterans of several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan," he wrote. "They have honorably completed their active duty obligations. But like draftees, they have been conscripted to meet the additional needs in Iraq."
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Read the entire Salon article
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