DOD数据： 强迫停留在军队
星期三， 2008年4月23日
由 汤姆Vanden溪 |
军队加速义务不随意的引伸它的政策去年支持它的队伍水平，尽管国防部长罗伯特门’顺序限制它，五角大楼纪录展示。
门指挥联合参谋长的主席和服务秘书使必须的游览引伸减到最小，以“中止损失著名”，于2007年1月。 在5月前，政策的影响的战士的数量下降到3年的低落8,540。
从那以后，战士的数量被迫使保持在军队上升了43%到12,235在3月。 当军事在美国，寄发了更多队伍到伊拉克和被扩大的游览到15个月到支持逐步升级对中止损失的信赖增加了。 布什总统命令的力量。 需要上个月驾驶增量派遣国民自卫队战士到伊拉克。
中止损失的影响的战士现在服务，平均，一个额外6.6月，五角大楼新闻秘书Geoff Morrell认为。 关键领导在小单位水平-军士通过上士-组成45%那些战士。 战士为4年的限制典型地征。
“门了解困难中止损失姿势对我们的队伍和他们的家庭的秘书，但他在战场也了解需要维护言词一致的单位在部署中”， Morrell说。 “一起训练了并且一起战斗了的队伍应该一起保持”。
趋向是惊心的，说Rep。 克里斯托弗Shays， RConn。，在4月17日写一封信给敦促他“用最强的期限的”门给挡块损失。
去年，他们关注使用政策支持力量为所谓的浪涌的Shays和其他三名议院成员写了门一个相似的信件说法。 它损害士气，负担进军’家庭，损坏军事领导的可信度并且威胁吸收，他们写了。
如果他们的单位部署90在天内的战士的承诺的结尾中止损失在服务可能保留战士。 军队说是必要的，维护朝向的单位正直打仗。 总计， 58,300位战士受中止损失的影响自2002年以来，根据军队。 That’s about 1% of active duty, Reserve and National Guard troops. For the 3rd Infantry Division, which is responsible for a portion of Iraq south of Baghdad, about 1,500 of its 22,500 soldiers is serving under stop loss, according to Maj. Alayne Conway.
Shays said the nation needs a bigger Army. In the meantime, he urges the Pentagon to press more personnel from the Air Force and Navy into Army jobs.
PENTAGON MEMO:Army’s response to minimizing stop loss (pdf)
The policy shows the Army is “unraveling a bit” while “under tremendous strain,” said Rep. Joe Sestak, a Pennsylvania Democrat and retired vice admiral. Sestak, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said relying on stop loss could be masking problems the Army is having with recruiting.
“We don’t have the individual in terms of quality or quantity to take that next individual’s place so that he could finish his tour and go home,” Sestak said. “This is five years into the war. I don’t think this is insignificant.”
James Martin, a social work professor at Bryn Mawr College and retired Army colonel, said stop loss is the result of an Army that’s too small to meet its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Sergeants are often most affected.
“These are the guys who bear the brunt of it,” Martin said. “They just get put back into the grinder continually.”
In January 2007, Gates wrote to secretaries of the services and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that included a directive to submit plans to “minimize the use of Stop Loss.” In reply, then-Army secretary Francis Harvey wrote that the Army would pay soldiers facing stop loss $300 extra per month “to extend their enlistment to complete their deployment.”
PENTAGON MEMO: Gates addresses stop loss (pdf)
Harvey wrote that the plan “could reduce the number of soldiers affected by (stop loss) by as much as 50%.” Soldiers who didn’t take the pay, he added, would still be subject to involuntary extension.
Lt. Gen. James Thurman, Pentagon deputy chief of staff for operations, said Monday he hoped the Army could put a stop to mandatory extensions by fall 2009.
Although some soldiers say they understand the reasons for stop loss, it doesn’t boost morale, said Robert Sauder, 24, a staff sergeant who was involuntarily retained in 2006 when he was preparing to leave the service. By then, he’d spent 13 months in Afghanistan. Then he spent 15 months in Iraq.
Sauder, of Baroda, Mich., said he “was pretty sour about the whole situation.”
Near Kirkuk, he and his comrades dodged rockets, mortars and roadside bombs. “It ended up pretty good for me and my guys. We made it back alive.”
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008at 3:09 amand is filed under War & Terrorism News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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