Chasing Ghosts by Paul Rieckhoff

Author:Paul Rieckhoff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2006-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

Third Platoon had been told from the start that we’d be heading home by July Fourth. Mission accomplished and all that. We all got excited and antsy as the day approached. Everyone walked just a little more carefully on patrol and scanned that much harder for IEDs. No one wanted to take a hit the day before we all shipped out. All the guys wrote letters to their loved ones like the ones I wrote to Bama, telling her how excited I was that I was going to be holding her soon. Asking her to pick a romantic spot anywhere in the world, preferably with a white beach and tall cocktails, to celebrate our reunion. Thanking her a million times over for her love and friendship and support through the previous six months. Every day at least one of my guys would ask me, “Hey, L.T. You get any word yet?” It was like Kuwait, only worse.

We all knew that the mission was nowhere near accomplished in Baghdad. By most measures, things were getting worse, not better. Still, we hoped.

July 1, 2, 3 passed with no word. On July Fourth it came: our tour was extended through September. Three more months in hell. Three more months away from girlfriends, families, jobs.

Tour extensions are the National Guardsman’s nightmare. You’re not like regular Army. Soldiering is not your full-time occupation. You’ve got another job. You are what some people pejoratively call a “weekend warrior.” You’re ready to serve at any time your governor or the president calls on you. You never know when or for how long that’s going to be.

My guys had served six months at this point, and served brilliantly and courageously. That’s a hell of a way from being a weekend warrior. And now they’d serve another three months.

For guys whose marriages or relationships were already strained, the news was devastating. Every mailbag carried a new Dear John letter.

Tour extensions are also a nightmare for any combat personnel whose contracted term of duty is coming to an end. The military has a policy called “stop-loss,” by which it can prevent troops from leaving the armed forces after their contracts have expired. Stop-loss is a fine-print loophole in the contract that allows the Department of Defense to force servicemen and -women who are normally scheduled to retire or leave the military to remain on duty. These are people who have volunteered to serve their country, and honorably completed their commitments, who are now being forced to continue to serve, like conscripts. That’s why stop-loss policies have been called a “backdoor draft.”

With recruitment down and not enough standing troops, stop-loss is a way for the Pentagon to make up for the shortage of soldiers needed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military first used stop-loss during the Gulf War, and has used it at an unprecedented level in Iraq, where troop strength has always been stretched to the breaking point. It’s been estimated that without stop-loss, troop strength would be down as much as 25 percent.

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