About 15 percent of Oregon's deploying soldiers are on stop-loss

Stop loss hits home
by The Oregonian Editorial Board
Saturday March 21, 2009, 11:09 AM
About 15 percent of Oregon's deploying soldiers are on stop-loss, roughly twice the military average



The 41st Brigade Combat Team patch
When Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last week that the Army will end its practice of extending soldiers' contracts beyond their end dates, he said such stop-loss orders "break faith" with service members.

But the deployment next month of Oregon's 41st Brigade Combat Team will include 479 soldiers affected by stop-loss, according to the Oregon Military Dept. That means that about 15.3 percent of the brigade could be deployed involuntarily. That's a rate a little more than twice that of stop-lossed troops currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nobody likes stop loss, the policy that allows the Army to order soldiers to active duty when they would otherwise be able to leave the service. The people it hurts most are families and soldiers who intended to serve one or two hitches, then quit. For some, this stop loss order will force some to drive the highways of Iraq for the next year rather than working or attending school in Oregon. For them, stop-loss is, indeed, a policy that "breaks faith" with volunteer soldiers.

To be sure, some portion of Oregon's stop-lossed component includes soldiers who have every intention of re-enlisting when they get to Iraq, knowing retention bonuses are tax-free. Others among the stop-lossed may not deploy for medical reasons. But the fact remains that Oregon's ratio of stop-lossed soldiers is substantially higher than typical.
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