Marines: No 'stop loss' this time, yet

[thedrifter]

Marines: No 'stop loss' this time, yet






By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON ---- Even as tens of thousands of Marines prepare to again deploy to Iraq, Marine Corps officials say there are no plans to stop troops from leaving the service or from changing units.

But Marine officials cautioned that plans could change before the Iraq-bound units are announced as early as the end of the week. The Army this week extended indefinitely its "stop loss" program for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A year ago ---- on Jan. 9, with some Marines still in Afghanistan and nearly 70,000 readying for deployments to Kuwait and Iraq ---- the Marine Corps suspended most retirements and transfers in what was called the "stop loss and stop move" policy.

According to officials, the program affected 3,000 of the nearly 175,000 Marines in the service between January and May, when the policy was relaxed four months ahead of schedule. At least 440 Marines reservists also were held in service beyond their contracts.

Some troops were forced to postpone college, pass up new jobs, and scratch plans to move their families to new communities.

But this year, as the Marines again gear up for a mission in Iraq, officials say there is no stop loss policy in the works ---- at least not yet.

"Since the last stop loss was lifted, there has been no reactivation of the policy," said 1st Lt. Darlan Harris, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs branch in Quantico, Va.

After speaking with several key leaders in the personnel branch this week, Harris said the general consensus there is that the Marine Corps will not have to take the drastic measures it took last year to satisfy deployment orders.

The deployment to Iraq this year is much smaller than in 2003 and is for a fixed time, unlike during invasion last spring when no one knew for sure how long the Marines would be needed.

At least 40,000 Marines are slated for missions in Iraq during the next year. Most of the troops are from Camp Pendleton, Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and other Southern California bases ---- all part of the I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Officials have not announced which units will deploy, but a Camp Pendleton official said Wednesday that a complete list could be published by the end of the week.

Harris warned that because "things change over here," neither she nor other officials could guarantee that the service would not reinstitute the policy of postponing retirements, transfers and discharges.

If there is such a policy change, it will be announced and explained before the major deploying units are announced, she said.

The unusual and controversial policy of keeping volunteer troops in the military beyond their contractual obligations was authorized after the Vietnam War and was first used during the buildup to the 1991 Gulf War.

After two years of fighting in Afghanistan and nearly a year of massive commitments in Iraq, the Army recently extended its policy to maintain the cohesion and combat effectiveness of units operating in the field and to guarantee the integrity of those units about to deploy, officials said.

The U.S. military is about to undergo the most extensive rotation of troops in its history.

Between late this month and May, more than 123,000 mostly Army soldiers will be rotated out of Iraq and about 110,000 fresh soldiers and Marines will be rotated in to replace them.

The Marines are scheduled to replace the 20,000-strong task force led by the 82nd Airborne Division in western Iraq.

While some small groups and teams of specialists have been in Iraq and Kuwait for months or will be leaving this month, the main forces are not supposed to start deploying until February and March.

A second wave of Marines will start replacing them after September.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at (760) 740-5442 or dmortenson@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/200..._0419_31_12.txt


Sempers,

Roger