Back Door Draft Of Stop Loss up 43 percent

DoD: Stop-loss up 43 percent in past year

By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Apr 22, 2008 12:31:57 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Army has accelerated its policy of involuntary extensions of duty to bolster its troop levels, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ order last year to limit it, Pentagon records show.

Gates directed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service secretaries to minimize mandatory tour extensions, known as stop-loss, in January 2007. By May, the number of soldiers affected by the policy had dropped to a three-year low of 8,540.

Since then, the number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army rose 43 percent to 12,235 in March. The reliance on stop-loss has increased as the military has sent more troops to Iraq and extended tours to 15 months to support an escalation in U.S. forces ordered by President Bush. The increase last month was driven by the need to send more National Guard soldiers to Iraq.

Soldiers affected by stop loss now serve, on average, an extra 6.6 months, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. Key leaders at the small-unit level — sergeants through sergeants first class — make up 45 percent of those soldiers. Soldiers typically enlist for four-year stints.

“Secretary Gates understands the hardship stop-loss poses to our troops and their families, but he also understands the need to maintain cohesive units on the battlefield throughout deployment,” Morrell said. “Troops who have trained together and fought together should remain together.”
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