mary.poppins asked about "stop loss", which is the armed services involuntary extensions of contracts in times of a declared national emergency. The president declared such a state of emergency after 9/11.
At that time, a lot of people got stuck in the military no matter what their contract said. I would have been able to get out in a couple months, but realized I would not be able to so I voluntarily extended my contract for three years.
After a couple of years, most of stop loss was gone, but certain critical skills areas, such as military police, stayed under stop loss. As far as I know, I will still be under stop loss for at least 90 days when I get back.
Soldiers have reacted to this like anyone would when told that they have to keep working for several more years at a place they want to leave, but, if we are going to fight a war (whether you agree with it or not), the way to win is to keep the experienced people from leaving. If you are in the military and you do not realize the government literally owns you[1], you did not read what you signed.
[1] If you get a bad sunburn, for instance, you can be charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 108: Damage To Government Property. I kid you not. :)
Re:Unstoppable?
brian_d_foy on 2004-01-01T07:49:48
I have no idea. I don't think about that. The wayto survive is to give up all desire. I should get out sometime this year, unless I'm really stupid and sign up again.Re:Unstoppable?
yudel on 2004-01-02T01:36:31
Sounds like a sensible, if difficult and Zen, approach.Question: Could you repost your mailing address? TIA!
Re:Unstoppable?
brian_d_foy on 2004-01-02T16:37:34
Mailing address is:
SSG brian d foy
119th MP CO
APO AE 09335
For those of you who think that looks wierd, here's how it works.
The Army has it's own postal people, affiliated with the real United States Postal Service. They set up shop whereever the Army goes, they use the same equipment that a real post office uses, but they are regular soldiers who have rifles and everything.
When you send something to someone in the Army, the letters and packages go through an Army Post Office (APO), which is a big collecting points, and that shows up in the city field (the Navy has Fleet Post Offices (FPO)). There are two major centers: Army Europe (AE) and Army Pacific (AP), and those show up in the State portion of a US address. AE is actually Newark, NJ, and AP is San Francisco, I think. Once stuff gets there, it gets roughly sorted (literally and figuratively), sent to somewhere close, and then the Army puts it on planes or trucks or horses to get it to my unit, the 119th MP Co.
We get our mail because we send one of guys to the mail reception area and pick it up ourselves. Often, a bunch of mail clerks from different units get together and do the final sort so everyone can get their mail, including the mail clerks who are there to pick up mail.
Now, between Newark and here, the mail could be on a fancy 747 with new paint, or a rusty old surplus Russian air force plane (AN-12s and IL-76s seem to be popular), or something even worse. You may have heard about the DHL plane that was shot down in Baghdad around thanksgiving. Guys in my platoon have pictures (that they took themselves) of that. That plane was literally "hauling the mail", so mail was AFU for a while.
Mail can take months to get to us, although usually that it because it got redirected a couple times. Usually it is around three weeks, and it comes in big clumps. It clumps because the different zip codes have daily volume and weight restrictions since the planes that fly over the pond are of finite size, although I hear they have some fancy electronic mail thing that improves on that. DARPA's been working on it since the 60s apparently.
Re:Stop-lossage
brian_d_foy on 2004-01-01T07:48:27
Every soldier I knows would like to meet his recruiter in a dark alley on a rainy night.:)
I'm curious when (and where) you went through OSUT. I went through mine at Ft. McClellan, AL from May to September of 1995.
Re:(OT) MP OSUT
brian_d_foy on 2004-01-01T07:47:28
Oh, I had to think about that acronym for a minute---my One Station Unit Training was 14 years ago (Some soldiers have to go to special schools at other stations, so there is a distinction). I was at Ft. McClellan from 31 Jul 1990 to 5 Dec 1990. Guess what happened 2 days after I got there!August 2, 1990
Mr. Muskrat on 2004-01-01T08:24:20
Iraq invaded Kuwait.:-(
Re:thanks
brian_d_foy on 2004-01-02T16:19:19
I think the source would be Donald Rumsfeld:)
