Stop-loss order

"A 'stop-loss' order' directs the military to suspend all separations from service during a conflict, and could also direct the calling back of discharged personnel into active service as part of activating reservists, should they be needed."

Reporting in the December 29, 2003, edition of the Washington Post, Lee Hockstader wrote that the "Army Stops Many Soldiers From Quitting. Orders Extend Enlistments to Curtail Troop Shortages".


 * "...thousands of soldiers [have been] forbidden to leave military service under the Army's 'stop-loss' orders, intended to stanch the seepage of troops, through retirement and discharge, from a military stretched thin by its burgeoning overseas missions.


 * "To the Pentagon, stop-loss orders are a finger in the dike -- a tool to halt the hemorrhage of personnel, and maximize cohesion and experience, for units in the field in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Through a series of stop-loss orders, the Army alone has blocked the possible retirements and departures of more than 40,000 soldiers, about 16,000 of them National Guard and reserve members who were eligible to leave the service this year. Hundreds more in the Air Force, Navy and Marines were briefly blocked from retiring or departing the military at some point this year.


 * "By prohibiting soldiers and officers from leaving the service at retirement or the expiration of their contracts, military leaders have breached the Army's manpower limit of 480,000 troops, a ceiling set by Congress."

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Operation Enduring Freedom
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom II
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire (December 2003)
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: U.S. military readiness