Staff Sergeant Drew Koch, Iraq Correspondent

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch shares his view about current happenings in the Middle East. This week’s question: Are soldiers being sent back to the Middle East after their contracts are up?

I must emphasize that the answers I give are of MY opinion, and are in no way actual official answers.  I am not able to answer on behalf of the Army, the Government or any office therein.  These are MY opinions and answers.  MY view points, no one else’s.

            The term that you are looking for is “Stop Loss”.  Are soldiers still being sent over here or to Afghanistan in a “Stop Loss” status?  To the best of my knowledge: no.  As of January 1, 2010 the Army was no longer able to enact new stop losses.  Those soldiers who were in the country on stop loss status prior to January 1st can still be held to complete their tour over here.

Understand what a “Stop loss” is; it is basically the Army telling a soldier that more than their original “Active Service Commitment” is going to be required of them.  You see, every soldier signs a contract with the Army.  That contract is for eight years.  The eight years are broken into two types of service.  Active service, much as it sounds, the Army being your full time job, like I am doing now.  The remainder of the eight years is what we call the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR), basically standby.  If you are needed, the Army can require that you come back.  The eight years can be broken into any variety of segments so long as the total is eight years.  So, a soldier can sign a contract for four years of Active Service, thus giving said soldier four years of inactive ready reserve (three active, five IRR, or six active, two IRR). You get the point. A “Stop Loss” occurs when a soldiers unit is deploying and they deem that soldier to be of vital importance.  The unit needs that soldier.  The soldier is therefore “Stop Loss” and deploys with the unit.

The soldier is supposed to be compensated with an additional $500/month for every month stop lost.

The only other thing that might be what you are inquiring would be are soldiers being called back to active service from their IRR status.  Answer: Yes.  The initial contract is again for eight years.

 Let’s say “Joe” serves three years active time and leaves the army.  He is technically still in the Army for five more years.  While those five years he doesn’t have to wear the uniform, doesn’t receive pay, can be going to college, can be working a different job.  Until eight years from the day he left for Basic Training, “Joe” is still under contract with the Army.  In the event of a long term, on going war, those soldiers can and sometimes are called upon to fill the shortages within their specialty.  Once the eight years have passed, then “Joe” is no longer under contract with the Army.  Take me for example, I left for Basic Training on June 18, 1998 therefore, my eight years was up June 17, 2006. If I were to get out of the Army tomorrow, they would never be able to bother me again because my initial contract is up.

Again, these aren’t official army answers. They are just the way I understand it.