User Contributed Dictionary
Noun
- The activation of something previously inactive or inactivated.
Extensive Definition
Stop-loss, in the United
States military, is the involuntary extension of a service
member's active duty service under the enlistment contract in order
to retain them beyond their initial end of term of service (ETS)
date. It also applies to the cessation of a permanent change of
station (PCS) move for a member still in military service.
Stop-loss was used immediately before and during the first Persian Gulf
War. Since then, it has been used during American military
deployments to Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia
and Kosovo
during the 1990s and in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
The policy has been legally challenged several
times, however federal courts have consistently found that military
service members contractually agree that their term of service may
be involuntarily extended.
Legal basis
Stop-loss was created by the United States Congress after the Vietnam War. Its use is founded on Title 10, United States Code, Section 12305(a) which states in part: "... the President may suspend any provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to any member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States" and Paragraph 9(c) of DD Form 4/1 (The Armed Forces Enlistment Contract) which states: "In the event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six (6) months after the war ends, unless the enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States."Every person who enlists in a branch of the U.S.
Armed Forces signs an initial contract with an eight (8) year
service obligation. The enlistment contract for a person going on
active duty generally stipulates an initial period of active duty
from 2 to 4 years, followed by service in a
reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States for
the remainder of the eight year obligation. Service members whose
ETS, retirement, or end of service obligation date falls during a
deployment are generally involuntarily extended until the end of
their unit's deployment.
Controversy
The controversy regarding stop-loss focuses mainly on the aspect involving "involuntary extension" of a service member's initial active duty service obligation. For service members opposed to involuntary extension, it represents implementation of a desultory clause in their contract which alters their expectation of an end of term of service date. It also exposes them to the risk of an additional or prolonged combat deployment. For opponents of a current armed conflict, the public perception of "involuntary extension" is contrary to the notion of voluntary service and undermines popular support for the conflict.In a campaign speech in 2004, former presidential
candidate John Kerry
described stop-loss as a "backdoor
draft." The use of stop-loss has been criticized by activists
and some politicians as an abuse of the spirit of the law, on the
basis that Congress has not declared war, such as is the case in
the Iraq War.
During August 2007,
Iraq Veterans Against the War, an activist organization of
former and current service members, announced a national "Stop the
Stop-Loss" campaign at a press conference where they were holding a
week-long vigil in a tower erected on the National Mall in
Washington, D.C. Other anti-Stop-Loss vigils have occurred in
Bellingham,
Washington, and Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
On March 10 and 11, 2008, a group of college
students, supported by Code Pink and
Iraq Veterans Against the War, as well as several other
organizations, issued symbolic stop-loss "orders" to every member
of both the
United States House of Representatives and the United
States Senate in protest of both the practice of stop-lossing
and of the Iraq War. On
March 12, 2008, the students "enforced" the orders by blocking off
the exits to the parking garages of the
Rayburn House Office Building and the
Hart Senate Office Building.
Legal challenges
The first known legal challenge in American history to the involuntary extension of a soldier's enlistment contract occurred during the American Civil War, when Private Edward A. Stevens filed suit against the federal government for extending his three-month enlistment. The prosecuting party for the government was Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War. Stevens lost the suit and was confined for "mutinous conduct" for a brief period of time.The first legal challenge to the contemporary
stop-loss policy came in August 2004, with a lawsuit challenged by
David Qualls, a
National Guardsman in California. Qualls argued the military
breached his enlistment contract by involuntarily extending his
term of service. However, his arguments were rejected by Judge
Royce C. Lambert and the case was dismissed. Qualls' case was not
appealed.
In October 2004, a "John Doe"
lawsuit was filed by an anonymous National Guardsman facing
stop-loss, challenging the validity of the law that authorized it.
This suit was dismissed at trial by Judge Frank C. Damrell and the
court's findings were upheld by the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit also
rejected another similar appeal in Santiago v. Rumsfeld in May,
2005.
Government response
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, as one of his first acts in his position, penned a memo compelling commanders to "minimize" the stop-lossing of soldiers.The United
States Army states that enlisted soldiers facing stop-loss can
now voluntarily separate by request, under provision 3-12, but only
after they complete an involuntary deployment of twelve to fifteen
months and 90 days stabilization time (time allowed to
"out-process" from the military) can they apply.
This refers to an Army policy dated Sept. 5,
2002. It allowed enlisted soldiers under stop-loss to voluntarily
separate on the one-year anniversary of their original expiration
of service or ETS date (under twelve-month stop-loss); officers and
warrant officers, not retirement eligible, to apply to leave one
year from the end of their original service obligation date;
officers and warrant officers without a service obligation to
request separation 12 months after they were first affected by
stop-loss; and retirement-eligible soldiers to apply for retirement
one year from their original retirement eligibility date (defined
as 20 years active federal service) or one year from when stop-loss
took effect if the soldier was retirement eligible on the effective
date of stop-loss.
Despite Secretary Gates's order, by April 2008
use of stop loss had increased by 43%. Soldiers affected by stop
loss were then serving, on average, an extra 6.6 months, and
sergeants through sergeants first class made up 45% of these
soldiers. From 2002 through April 2008, 58,300 soldiers were
affected by stop loss, or about 1% of active duty, Reserve, and
National Guard troops.
In the Media
A film titled Stop-Loss,
released March of 2008, details the fictional story of a soldier
(played by actor Ryan
Phillippe) and his feelings towards the war and the stop-loss
policy.
See also
- Conscription in the United States
- Individual augmentee policy The term used by the Department of Defense for their program of selecting Air Force and Navy Personnel and deploying them to a combat zone.
- Felony waiver