Army Issues Order to Keep Soldiers from Leaving
9 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers designated to serve in Iraq (news - web sites) or Afghanistan (news - web sites) will be barred from leaving the military when their volunteer service commitment ends, the U.S. Army said on Wednesday.
Reuters Photo
AFP
Slideshow: U.S. Military
The latest "stop loss" and "stop movement" orders, broader than others issued previously, were a further sign of increasing stress on the Army as the Pentagon (news - web sites) strives to maintain adequate troop levels in the two conflicts.
Lt. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, the Army's personnel chief, told reporters it would be wrong to see the orders as a symptom of desperation but acknowledged that the Army was "stretched."
The Army issued the orders for active-duty soldiers and reservists in all units that will deploy outside the United States for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hagenbeck said the orders were open-ended, and could be in place for several years while the Army reorganizes itself into smaller, more interchangeable, units. The orders were meant to preserve unit cohesiveness by keeping together soldiers who have worked and trained together, he said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040602/ts_nm/iraq_usa_troops_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480