Friday, March 18, 2005
Enlist Once - Stay Forever?
I just read something kind of spooky. Before I get into this, I'd just like to mention that I do have 22 years in the USAF, retiring in 1995. So the military isn't something I know nothing about - not a lot, of course, but more than nothing. It seems the army is trying to make enlistments longer - to 8 years.
For those of you who don't know, most people enlist for X number of years, with X-Y being active duty time. In other words, you enlist for a 4 year tour of active duty, but you actually enlisted for 6 years of total duty. You'd normally finish off the last 2 years on inactive reserve status. You're still in the army reserves, you just don't have to meet every month for any kind of training. However, over the last couple of years (heard of Iraq?) the army has been making use of something called "stop-loss." This is a state of affairs where the military can delay a persons exit from the military for an undetermined length of time.
This has gotten a lot of air time now that the unpleasantries are going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria, etc. but is in fact nothing new. It used to be (back in the olden days) that you would put in 20 years in the military and then retire. I enlisted in 1973. For the greater part of that time I figured I'd be a civilian again in 1973. However if you read my first line, you'll see I spent 22 years in the military. Not my plan.
I was informed that I was eligible for another stripe (to E-7) right around 1993. I told them I wasn't interested in the extra stripe since I would have to stay in for another two years. They then showed me a regulation that stated all I had to give them was another 6 months after my promotion and I could then request my retirement. (The operative word here is "request.") I did, and I did, and they didn't. It seems the USAF couldn't do it's mission without my presence as an E-7 for another two years. So, they turned down my retirement "request."
To top it off, I had an assignment to Iceland at the time (which I really was looking forward to) and it was cancelled since they had too many E-7s there. Since I was supposed to leave in a week, my apartment lease was cancelled and my furniture was in storage and my luggage was actually on its way to Iceland. I became very vocal as it became obvious they had no place to put me as an E-7!! On the one hand, they couldn't live without me and on the other hand they couldn't figure out where to put me.
I finally ended up in South Korea as a "special projects" NCO for an office with more senior NCOs than junior NCOs. So to those of you enlisted now - and worried about not being allowed to leave later - it's nothing new. The military has been treating its personnel with varying levels of disinterest and unfairness since Og the caveman found out Ig the caveman didn't mind saluting him as long he got an occasional brontosaurus bone to munch on.
U.S. Naval Air Station (NAS) Keflavík and Michigan Military Retirees
