Comments on: Stop Loss Ignorance

By: Declaration of War « A Soldier's Perspective

Declaration of War « A Soldier's Perspective — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:12:31 +0000

[...] I recently. I won't say with whom I had it, but it started with this comment in response to my Stop Loss post on the VAMC Blog: "Did I miss something? Did Congress declare war [...]

By: CJ

CJ — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:05:49 +0000

Ryan, you are absolutely right about the legality issue. You are also right that married Soldiers get “separation pay” while deployed. I also think this is wrong! I don’t think married Soldiers (and I am one) should get more money for the same deployment as a single Soldier. We need to get rid of this entitlement mentality in the military because we are single, married, stop-lossed, black, female, white, gay, etc.

The bottom line with stop loss is that it should NOT be paid if the troop is within their 8-year requirement that they signed up for. If they are stop-lossed beyond that 8-year mark, then yes they deserve it! I could care less if only one or one thousand are affected, we’re spending tax dollars for coddle troops that volunteered for eight years. Our government is turning us into welfare babies and entitlement hogs. Whatever happened to the “service” in military service?!

I have a problem with it because we’re paying troops more money for something they voluntarily entered into. If you think you’ve been wronged because of job offers (which you didn’t mention – just resumes) and other plans, seek a waiver and go that route. I sympathize with you. I know it sucks. I’ve made plans for my family at one duty station, only to find out literally days prior to my final out that my orders were changed and I’m going to a completely different state! It sucks, but we deal with it. We’re Soldiers, not welfare babies!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 23 May 2009 08:14:25 +0000

From a deployed Stop-Lossed soldier…
1)Is it legal? Unfortunately, yes.
Now that this is out of the way let’s answer the question that MATTERS… Is it WORTH (who cares if it is legal this is NOT the point) additional compensation? I believe it is. Let me just remind people that congress and the army don’t pass bill or pay soldiers extra money because they wronged them legally. That is not what this is. For example, if you are deployed and married you get an extra “seperation” pay. Is this because the Army can not, by law, separate you from your family and this is there way of “settling” some sort of legal wrong-doing? LoL, no it is not. Did these married soldiers not understand or read their contract and get the idea that they MAY have to seperate from their families? You see my point? this is not what it is about. Congress realizes, that however legal it is, because soldiers are Stop Loss at such a low percentage (1% reports the army times since 2002) then obviously we plan for a future on the outside once our four (or whatever u signed up for it out) years of service is up so when you find out THREE months before you are supposed to sign out that you will be stop lossed then that means those Resumes you just sent out to the Fire Departments, the university you applied for and got into, and the family events you were scheduled to go to (all things that happened to me) mean NOTHING now. So if the Army wants to be a stand-up organization (actually we can thank congress since.. to be honest in my experience I don’t find the Army to be “stand up” by any definition of the term) and say “Hey SPC. XYZ, we know we only get about 1% of you guys and you just got the short end of the stick since 99/100 get OUT on time, so we’re gonna give you a little something extra.” then obviously I am fine with this and I do not see WHY anyone else would have a problem with it.

By: ed

ed — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:53:51 +0000

I’m on stop loss orders right now, and honestly it doesn’t bother me, I was going to try to re-enlist for 7 months so I could deploy with my unit if I didn’t get stop lossed. The one point that no one has made is if you re-enlist you get a bonus, so if you get stop lossed why not get some kind of a bonus? If you don’t support the $500 a month for stop loss do you support any bonuses for re-enlistment?

By: Niz

Niz — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:22:46 +0000

CJ, you’re an idiot military lifer that I see all too often and can’t wait to get away from. If you think that it’s BS that somebody gets stop-loss pay for serving their ACTIVCE duty part of the contract, then why should they recieve any of the entitlements that any members of the service get. The fact is these people served once (or more) and were asked to go back again, and did, even though they should have RIGHTLY been moving on with their life.

By: Dallas Peterson

Dallas Peterson — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:24:59 +0000

Well this is a new one for me. I see all of the soldiers, airman, saliors and Marines comments. I agree with most and am shocked at the author of this article. Having served for 21+ years, it saddens me to see that there are still people in the US that do not understand the facts of what it takes to serve our nation, in the military. I was that straight out of high school get the money for college kid. After serving my first enlistment I decided to stay for another one. Out of duty to my country. Less than 0.5% actually serve in the military. THAT is appauling. We stand and do not question what we are told to do. That is our duty. The other 95.5% has the choice to either support us or not. We guarentee that choice.
Now because Congress has decided to give us something they(the 95.5%) are not getting for us giving them their choices they want to bring up stuff that was put into our contracts. Be concerned for money given to banks and mortage companies. We earned it , did they. I was stop lossed 19 days prior to my retirement, for 18 months.
If you have never put on the uniform for any branch of the services then please keep your mouth tightly closed and be glad that others did, FOR YOU. Personally I am very proud of my service and will always support anything that Congress or anyone does that is meant to help my brothers in uniform, so should every other citizen the the United States.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:53:25 +0000

Its been my experience that only individuals who are not currently stop lossed play the “you signed the contract card”. After 5 years of active duty and 6 years as a reservist, I finally decided to cut my losses and return to civilian life full time. Not so fast, the Army feels otherwise. I was stop lossed with less than 3 months remaining on my 6 year contract. Guaranteed to spend at least another 12 months in. When I signed my last contract, I was 23 years old. I am now 29, alot of things have happened in those past 6 years. I find that the stop loss policy is appauling. What is the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps doing that the Army cant? Those branches haven’t used stop loss since 2001/2002. The Army has been consistantly meeting or exceeding its recruiting goals for months now. Why do they continue to use stop loss? They claim that unit cohesion will be affected. How does one explain those sections that are comprised of 40 to 50% of back fills and volunteers from other units? I would say there isn’t mush cohesion there anyways. They can afford to let soldiers ETS without affecting cohesion. Because the Army is meeting or exceeding its recruiting goals, bonuses are going to decrease, that you can almost be assured. President Bush signed the stop loss payment bill on September 30th, 2008. Those individuals stop lossed will be (eventually) payed up to $500 per month in fiscal year 09, for being stop lossed. Why not eliminate stop loss and keep re-enlistment bonuses at current levels for those who wish to continue to serve. They are going to pay people who are stop lossed and reduce re-enlistment bonuses, makes no sense at all.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:59:40 +0000

Why would a government adopt a policy of stop loss after a major conflcit. It’s brutal on our forces whether it’s being discloused or not. I don’t agree with the policy because it’s socialst in nature. When secret societies dictate our war policies so that their children are excluded from war , we have abandoned our democratic process to allow a submersive process of collusion to dictate our nations
political policies. Don’t we have a right to know how our government works ?

Is the military program of Stop Loss directly related to the repercussion of Watergate and should these policies be halted ? When Mark Felt { Deep Throat } leaked the information that a policy of war had been signed into our Executive that would exclude certain members and sectors of our society from having to serve in the military , are the current policies of Stop Loss what they had in mind ? Although the Stop Loss policy has some redeeming benefits , it’s long term goals are mainly responsible for the fatigue and exhaustion of our current troops. The personal effort in the military has become so desperate that you have some soldiers serving in war zones while taking psychological medications and sleeping pills. Considering the long and short term effects of this policy , it appears genocidal in nature and unfair to the military personnel that have so boldly volunteered to serve and defend our country. Please take a minute through the holiday season and think about the people defending your nation and write your legislators and demand the program of Stop Loss be stopped.

Reference = All The President’s Men / Un Censored – Warner Editions 1st Edition – ( Simon And Shuster are all Censored )
Reported that Mark Felt Leaked that A System To Delete The Need For War was signed into the Executive and that a Black Operational Government had been incorporated into our government.

By: The some day Mr. Edwards

The some day Mr. Edwards — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:44:25 +0000

Hey whats going on. Holy cow seems like cj needs someone to help him with his defense on why stop loss pay sould not go through. I’m not going to be a big help, Im just going to lightin the mood here, with a story of mine. I was originaly just surfin the net here in Iraq. by the way it is pretty nice over here. We have phones Internet games Its alot better now. I only have 30 min. left so Ill have to make this quick. you know these locals down here are strick on time limits. Anyways like I was saying I was surfin looking to see if the stop loss pay went though, and I ran across this blog. Im not going to lie Its alot to read like my contract so I just skimmed most of it, sorry. Oh and I have to mention I am one of those as you mentioned “stop lossed losers”, but please dont refer to me as such. I have not finished my full eight years. I served my 4 years and was out processing. I was heading out the door to go on termanal leave, which I pupously put on my birthday, witch was a mistake. So ya had a job lined up already had my interview. Just bought a house, because I needed some were to live, and now stop lossed, on my birthday. So there went all my plans down the drain and no I didnt go on leave so my family did not get to see me. My unit was just gitting back from there leave and then we all deployed. Im going on 15 month stop lossed. out here I have my 3 month left and 3 when I get back. It was kind of wierd out here, everyone left me alone because they thought I would be angry all the time. I was actully told by my reinlistment NCO that It would be better to just re up so I could at least get some money out of this. Hes a little slow so I left him alone with my big list of why Im not reinlisting. Why would I re up when I know that if I do I will just be stop lossed again. The bad part is my solders see my peers all becoming E6′s and Im not when asked why, I have to tell them because Im stop lossed. My solders know that if they re up now even if its only for 2 years, they need to expect 4 years and not plan on advancing, and thats something I really dont wont to patray because truthfully I love my job here in the army. Its just a bunch of small things and other storys that I dont have time to tell right now, that is telling me to get out. well that was not the story I wonted to tell I’m sorry for going on that really long tangent, but I figured I’d give my backroung and vent a little. so anyways back to my story to lightin the mood. CJ earlyer you stated “And don’t tell me about my “negative” beliefs. I’m the most positive person you’ll ever meet. But, I’m also a realist. You don’t like the fact that you’re not going to get paid for doing your job in this man’s Army, get the hell out!! It’s that simple. I tell my Soldiers straight up I’m not going to talk them into staying if they don’t want to. And I get them everything I can if they do.” I read that get the hell out line and it reminded me of a story when I was in Korea….. One day a bradly was cunducting a field exercise and ran over a little girl in a near by city. I was on Camp Page. On this day they were Morning her loss with a small protest at our gates. And of course we were all on lock down. The all had sighns that said “Americans get out” and other stuff like that. Well In our unit we had this one solder. He was like Dan. Just plane angry with the army. So there I am sitting in my room looking out my door with a good view of the angry protesters, and of course a beer in hand, when I see little (for refernce sake well name him dan) dan go running out to the gate with no shirt on and two broom sticks. at the ends of the broom stick he taped a sighn to it in reply to the locals. The sighn said ” I wont to go home but they wont let me” well he got his wish I never saw him again. Well I hope you got a laugh out of that. My main point is were stop lossed and I cant go home. Well I guess I could if I ran around with our a shirt, or played gay, or crazy, or shot my self like the so many other dans. and may be money is what we should get may be leave dates to replace the days we should have been with our familys. So back to my origanal reason for being on here did the bill go though for sure? Well no time to spell check this sorry.

By: CJ

CJ — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:28:31 +0000

Jason, do you read English? If so, do you understand it? My statement about BAH was, to quote myself, “I also don’t think married Soldiers deserve MORE BAH than single Soldiers.” (emphasis added) Why do I deserve more money because I decided to have a bunch of a kids and get married (I’m married with three kids, by the way)? Of course, if you didn’t understand me the first time I said it, I don’t expect you to understand me this time. I’m just hoping you invested in a dictionary. Of course, we deserve BAH, but there should be equity. Why do we create classes within the military – haves and have nots? But, you’re probably a socialist who likes that sort of stuff anyway.

Personally, Jason, I think you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Probably didn’t graduate high school and had to get a GED, based on your writing. Therefore, you HAVE to be in the military maybe. Either way, it sounds like you joined for all the wrong reasons. “WE DESERVE IT”?! What kind of crap is that? Doesn’t sound like the kind of humble attitude Soldiers should possess to me.

I don’t care if you agree with me or not. The law is the law whether you like it or don’t. Oh, and I’ve never been overseas that wasn’t a deployment. I got my promotions taking care of trash like you. I want my Soldiers to have everything they DESERVE! And I bet I do more to ensure they get it than you could possibly even imagine.