COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: Stop-Loss
"Try One" program "puts one over" on returning veterans
Timothy Lynch, cato.org
September 6, 2006
During the 2004 presidential election debate,President Bush told a nationwide television
audience to "forget about all this talk about a
draft. We're not going to have a draft so long as
I am the president." In order to evaluate the
accuracy of that statement, one must pay careful
attention to the word "draft"--for, as the
economist Thomas Sowell once observed, "All
statements are true, if you are free to redefine
their terms."
Shortly after 9/11 President Bush declared a
"national emergency" and simultaneously authorized
Pentagon officials to issue "stoploss" orders. A
stop-loss order means that members of the military
may not leave the service--even if they have
fulfilled the terms of their enlistment contract.
Once a stop-loss order is issued, an individual's
duty status changes from voluntary service to
involuntary service. Although the legality of the
stop-loss orders has been upheld by the judiciary,
those orders have clearly changed the nature of
military service for many soldiers. In military
circles, the orders have been dubbed the "backdoor
draft."
The National Guard has tried to attract recruits
with a program called "Try One." A website
advertisement tells veterans who are leaving the
service that they are eligible for a special
program in the Guard or the Reserves. The Try One
contract allows veterans to try the Guard or the
Reserves for a year--and then decide if they wish
to commit to a full enlistment. The Pentagon has
ordered persons in that program to Iraq--even
though they have already served a year and wish to
return to civilian life. According to the fine
print, recruits could end up serving many years in
the military, not one. When a reporter confronted
Army personnel director, Brigadier General Sean
Byrne, about the misleading nature of the Try One
program, the general said, "I am not the marketer,
but maybe it'll have to be re-looked." Eighteen
months after that interview, the government
continues to mislead young men and women into what
it keeps calling its "Try One" program.
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