Posted 6/2/2004 11:42 PM
Army extends duty for soldiers
By Dave Moniz and Tom
Squitieri, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — In the latest sign of the growing strains on thinly stretched U.S. armed forces, the Army has issued orders to block tens of thousands of soldiers heading to Iraq and Afghanistan from leaving the military or transferring to other units, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
So-called stop-loss orders can add weeks or months to the tours of soldiers otherwise eligible to leave the Army. In rare cases, the policy could extend soldiers' time in the Army by as long as 18 months past the end of their voluntary enlistments.
The move is further evidence of the difficulty the Pentagon has in fielding enough troops to fight al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan and the stubborn insurgency in Iraq. The rules will affect deployments for the foreseeable future.
Lt. Gen. Franklin "Buster" Hagenbeck, the Army's top personnel officer, said the new rules apply to all Army forces rotating to bases in Iraq, Afghanistan and several countries nearby. The practice of freezing troops in their units, known in military parlance as "stop loss" or "stop movement," applies to soldiers who otherwise might transfer to new units as part of normal reassignment or leave the military because their enlistments are up.
"We want to deploy as a team," Hagenbeck told reporters. "This is a stopgap measure during the next few years."
The announcement codifies a standing practice for troops heading to Iraq, Army spokesman Dov Schwartz said. Before the announcement, the Army had to get separate approval from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to apply stop-loss orders to individual units. Now the freeze will be automatic.
David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland, said the new policy points out "an obvious disconnect" between the size of the Army and the need to fight two wars with no obvious end point. "It was never designed to do the kinds of things it is being asked to do," Segal said.
Hagenbeck said the change was implemented to bring greater stability to Army forces heading to combat zones. In some cases, Army officials say, large units set to rotate overseas have had to replace up to 25% of their troops because of normal reassignments and soldiers leaving the military.
The intensified stop-loss policy highlights the strains on the Army, the largest branch of the U.S. military. The Army is providing the vast majority of the 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and the 12,000 in Afghanistan. Early next year, several large Army units will head back to Iraq for their second tours of duty.
usatoday.com |
