COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: General
Soldier called back to duty on day before retirement
Associated Press
October 15, 2006
LINDENHURST, Ill. (AP) An Army staff sergeant was days away from retirement after a 20-year military career when he was ordered to return to his unit, which will be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month.James Engle applied for retirement in January and later received a retirement award from the Army during a ceremony in Texas. On Sept. 20 he was told paperwork was missing and he should report to his unit, the 1st Cavalry Division.
Late last month, the Army denied his retirement request along with a request to exempt him from his unit's deployment saying it was ``neither compelling nor compassionate enough in nature,'' even though a military retirement counselor had scheduled his Army release for Sept. 21.
``I feel like I'm twisting in the wind,'' Engle said. ``I keep being told that there has been a big, huge mistake. Well, this big, huge mistake has turned my life completely around.''
Engle's lieutenant, Frank Lyle, said he is working with Army personnel to solve the problem.
A telephone call Sunday to the Army's public affairs office at the Pentagon for comment was not immediately returned.
Engle, 38, of Lindenhurst joined the Army in August 1986. During his two decades with the military he spent nine years in combat zones, including Somalia, Bosnia and Afghanistan.
Engle first applied for retirement in August 2005, while working at the Military Entrance Processing Station in Des Plaines.
His request was denied and the military transferred him to Fort Hood, Texas. Engle's wife, Claudia, and two children decided to stay in Lindenhurst, located 40 miles northwest of Chicago.
``We were finally ready to settle down and stop moving,'' Claudia Engle said. ``Our home is in Lindenhurst. We don't want to go anywhere else.''
While he awaits word on his retirement request, Engle said he will remain in suburban Chicago with his family while he finishes a two-month period of leave.
``If they would have said two months ago, we need you, I would have understood,'' Engle said. ``But to do this to me and my family one day before I was going to move home is especially cruel.''
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