US Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty

US Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty
Sun Jan 29, 2006 2:46 PM GMT16
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By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to
continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called
"stop-loss," but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have
fallen flat.

The policy applies to soldiers in units due to deploy for the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars. The Army said stop-loss is vital to maintain units that
are cohesive and ready to fight. But some experts said it shows how badly
the Army is stretched and could further complicate efforts to attract new
recruits.

"As the war in Iraq drags on, the Army is accumulating a collection of
problems that cumulatively could call into question the viability of an
all-volunteer force," said defence analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington
Institute think tank.

"When a service has to repeatedly resort to compelling the retention of
people who want to leave, you're edging away from the whole notion of
volunteerism."

When soldiers enlist, they sign a contract to serve for a certain number of
years, and know precisely when their service obligation ends so they can
return to civilian life. But stop-loss allows the Army, mindful of having
fully manned units, to keep soldiers on the verge of leaving the military.

Under the policy, soldiers who normally would leave when their commitments
expire must remain in the Army, starting 90 days before their unit is
scheduled to depart, through the end of their deployment and up to another
90 days after returning to their home base.

With yearlong tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, some soldiers can be forced to
stay in the Army an extra 18 months.

HARDSHIP FOR SOME SOLDIERS

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman, said that "there is no plan to
discontinue stop-loss."

"We understand that this is causing hardship for some individual soldiers,
and we take individual situations into consideration," Hilferty said.

Hilferty said there are about 12,500 soldiers in the regular Army, as well
as the part-time National Guard and Reserve, currently serving involuntarily
under the policy, and that about 50,000 have had their service extended
since the program began in 2002. An initial limited use of stop-loss was
expanded in subsequent years to affect many more.

"While the policies relative to the stop-loss seem harsh, in terms of
suspending scheduled separation dates (for leaving the Army), they are not
absolute," Hilferty said. "And we take individual situations into
consideration for compelling and compassionate reasons."

Hilferty noted the Army has given "exceptions" to 210 enlisted soldiers "due
to personal hardship reasons" since October 2004, allowing them to leave as
scheduled.

"The nation is at war and we are stop-lossing units deploying to a combat
theatre to ensure they mobilise, train, deploy, fight, redeploy and
demobilise as a team," he said.

NO LUCK IN COURT

A few soldiers have gone to court to challenge stop-loss.

One such case fizzled last week, when U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in
Washington dismissed a suit filed in 2004 by two Army National Guard
soldiers. The suit claimed the Army fraudulently induced soldiers to enlist
without specifying that their service might be involuntarily extended.

Courts also have backed the policy's legality in Oregon and California
cases.

Jules Lobel, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who represented the
National Guard soldiers, said a successful challenge to stop-loss was still
possible.

"I think the whole stop-loss program is a misrepresentation to people of how
long they're going to actually serve. I think it's caused tremendous morale
problems, tremendous psychological damage to people," Lobel said.

"When you sign up for the military, you're saying, 'I'll give you, say, six
years and then after six years I get my life back.' And they're saying, 'No,
really, we can extend you indefinitely.'"

Congressional critics have assailed stop-loss, and 2004 Democratic
presidential nominee John Kerry called it "a back-door draft." The United
States abolished the draft in 1973, but the all-volunteer military never
before has been tested by a protracted war.

A report commissioned by the Pentagon called stop-loss a "short-term fix"
enabling the Army to meet ongoing troop deployment requirements, but said
such policies "risk breaking the force as recruitment and retention problems
mount." It was written by Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer.

Thompson added, "The persistent use of stop-loss underscores the fact that
the war-fighting burden is being carried by a handful of soldiers while the
vast majority of citizens incur no sacrifice at all."


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