Are YOU ready for this?
 

Or planning a trip to Canada?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/....ap/index.html

Heh, I'm too old :D

I miss President Clinton's administration....

I would take a Rhode Scholar that gets a BJ from an intern over a C student playing cowboy anyday.

they have been talking about this for awhile, the idea of reinstating conscription is not new for the current conflicts.

I don't think it will happen, but if it does I have asthma so I'll be just dandy. And I agree with RSF5...Clinton might have made a really, really stupid mistake but he was a great president.

if the draft were to be reinstated, things would be just like in WWII where as long as you could walk on your own two feet, they'd find you a desk job somewhere, it would be non-combat, but it would be conscription nonetheless. :deal :type

And on the note of the long and frequent tours of duty to the sandbox, the military's dirty little secret is that if you're just a couple months away from being up for reinlistment, expect another trip to the sandbox that's longer than your remaining time on contract.


SECNAV (Secretary of the Navy protocols and policies) has provisions allowing a command to retain a person on active duty past the end of their contractual obligation as long as that person is on deployment. However, the same provisions also prohibit commands from extended that deployment from what the personnels original orders for deployment are. All other branches have similar provisions, except for the USMC since they fall under the department of the navy.

So basically, if your contract is up in two months, they'll ship you out for 6-9 months and since you're deployed in an active combat zone, they can keep you there the whole time your orders state you are to be there, but they can't extend your deployment.

^^^ in addition to that, they can order a stop loss. a stop loss prevents a unit from losing troops prior to a deployment.

chris, i guess you can call that a dirty little secret, but its really a logistical issue. when a troop is assigned to a unit, they are taken into account as part of the manpower, availability, and readiness of the unit. these factors (and many more) are what help decide if a unit is ready for deployment. it would be a waste of money and resources to pull troops who ETS out of a combat zone, and then replace them with somebody else who the other troops do not know, and additionally did not train with said unit. further, it would be unwise to account for each troop prior to considering which unit to deploy because every unit is going to have soldiers coming and going. thus, the search would go on forever.

i hesitated in saying this many times, but it is because of bill clinton's administration that our armed forces are smaller. in order to get all the money his admin did, he severely cut the military budget which causes numerous base closing, reductions in troop levels and standing divisions. on a more personal level, senior enlisted (maybe those doggone officers too) who planned to retire from the military were often cut before they could retire which left them with basically nothing. they would have to start new careers in mid life with only military and sometimes combat experience. aside from the direct benefit for finance, it cut thousands of service members who would have to be paid retirement, etc.

:thanks

Completely agree with you on that!

I only call it a dirty little secret because its one of things that the military does that gets as little public press time as possible. (I guess it doesn't help recruiting numbers if everyone knows that uncle sam has your ass for as long as he wants it, no matter what your legally binding document might say :lol

Ironically, I wasn't informed of these practices until AFTER I signed my contract with the classifier :shifty

^^^ if you handle it right then you will be ok. its a game, and you gotta know how to play.

just as a note, when you get the chance to go IRR (inactive status) then realize, despite what they say, you are less likely to get mobilized. they tell you the opposite, but its a lie and a true trick. if you would like the details, let me know.