I have been waiting for this to happen...
"We have some soldiers who are obviously not overjoyed about being deployed," Clark told Reuters by telephone. "I have had to look them in the eye and say 'hey, you are going."'Rumsfeld better address this situation pronto if he doesn't want to start replacing thousands of extended-tour reservists with Bloods and Crips to maintain adequate firepower.
On one hand, I really sympathize with the premise of the reservist's lawsuit that a period of enlistment in the reserves should not be indefinite and to be prevented from returning to one's home after his/her committment has been fulfilled is... unfair. Yes I agree. As for me, I consider it difficult for a civilian to take a firm stance on this issue unless one is familiar with the fine print.
Capt. Kincy Clark, who is mentioned in the suit by the plaintiff comments that, "reservists know when signing up that 'stop loss' or extension of service is a possibility." Who knows if the concept is thoroughly explained to enlistees upon signing up? I don't doubt it.
However, the plaintiff has apparently served in the Marine Corps and Army for nine years on active duty prior to his enlistment as a reservist in the Army National Guard for the past three years. One must wonder how a 9 year active veteran would fail to remember if he/she was informed of such a possibility of longer retention at the time of enlistment.
This lawsuit has the potential to get messy for the DoD pending they are unable to back up the "stop-loss" protocol as being common knowledge to reservist enlistees.
Posted by Kyer at August 17, 2004 07:12 PM