Army Plan Aims to Keep Soldiers on Duty

[Lou_C]

Army Plan Aims to Keep Soldiers on Duty

19 minutes ago

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - 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 (news - web sites) or Afghanistan (news - web sites).
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.

The move allows the Army to keep units together as they deploy, Hagenbeck said. Units with new recruits or recently transferred soldiers would not perform as well because the troops would not have had time to work together.


"The rationale is to have cohesive, trained units going to war together," Hagenbeck said.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_US_MILITARY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I wonder if any of them know about this?