Army to Stop Extending Tours Beyond Service Obligations
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 18, 2009; 3:42 PM

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced today that the Army will virtually eliminate the unpopular practice of "stop loss" –– or mandating that soldiers stay in the Army beyond their service obligation –– by March 2011 and will offer extra pay to soldiers whose service is extended under the policy.

About 13,000 soldiers are serving in the Army under the stop-loss policy, nearly double the number of two years ago. Gates said the goal is to reduce that number by 50 percent by June 2010 and to bring it down to scores or less by March 2011.

"I felt particularly in these numbers that it was breaking faith" to keep soldiers in the service after their end date comes up, Gates said. "To hold them against their will is just not the right thing to do," he said at a Pentagon press conference.

To achieve that, the Army Reserve will no longer mobilize units under stop-loss policy beginning in August, the Army National Guard in September, and the active duty Army by January 2010.

Gate said that the Army retains the authority to use stop loss under "extraordinary" circumstances. But he said that should only happen in an "emergency situation where we absolutely had to have somebody's skills for a specific limited period of time." Such decisions would be made by the secretary of the Army, he said.
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Effective this month, the Army will also pay soldiers who are under stop loss an extra $500 per month, and those payments will be retroactive until October 2008, when they were authorized by Congress, Gates said.

Still waiting on my $7,500 Fiance said I would be getting from stop loss pay.

any idea when they will pay retro for soldiers that go out in say 2005? I was stop lossed for 14 months and
a gubment check would come in handy.

Backdate to 1 OCT 2008.  Pay will only be for the months served after your original ETS date.

Understood, but my question is when are they going to start paying those soldiers that were stop-lossed
at the begining of the war? It is in the army times this month talking about it and it says that they are
waiting on additional funding before another round of payouts will take place. It reads that this bill
will pay all soldiers that were stop-lossed.

The Army Times is published by the same company as USA Today, and is not to be conisered a reliable source.

Wow, Rumsfeld said Stop-Loss would end at some point.

What's the big deal?

How about Army to End Stop-Loss Payment Program

Better?  

I've been waiting for this a long time.  One of my fears and prohibitive factors in signing up was the idea that I'd be called back again and again and again.. and if this goes through, I don't have to worry about that.

If they can stop the program, they can start it up again.



My dad got out after WWII, then they recalled him for Korea.

Stop loss is always part of the deal, and can always be instated, and probably still will be on high demand MOSs and critical skills.

Stop loss is a reaction to some serious Vietnam-era stupidity, where they let troops out when their 'time was up', with no consideration to the needs of the unit...

The point of 'stop loss' is to make sure that the folks who train up together deploy & come home together...

Rather than training up a unit, losing your experienced leadership to ETS, and filling those slots with promotions & brand new troops (esp officer slots)....