Kristen L. Rouse served in Afghanistan in 2006 and is a member of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)

I remember being at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, in the fall of 2006 and seeing Jeremy Wilson outside our camp's mailroom, heartbroken over what he'd just received in a package. Jeremy pulled out a small box and showed me the diamond ring inside. "She sent it back," he told me, choking back tears. He was clearly devastated. His fiancée had sent him back the ring he had given her, with a short note of explanation. She couldn't live anymore with him being away, and his being indefinitely committed to the Army. Jeremy's contractual end of service date had been September 2, 2006, and he had already deployed once to Afghanistan. But in the fall of 2005, everyone in our active duty unit was extended until May 2007, regardless of contractual end of service date--which meant that most of us were stop-lossed for a few weeks or months. For Jeremy, stop-loss meant ten full months that his civilian life would be put on hold, and that he would be deployed for a second tour in Afghanistan.

Continue reading...

Jeremy served as a medic and is a personal hero of mine. He worked for twelve months in the "Evac" section of Bagram's main hospital, taking care of American and Coalition casualties coming in by ambulance, helicopter, or airplane. He also took care of injured Afghans. Although he did amazing things for the troops in his care, the story about Jeremy that most impressed me was when he voluntarily walked through a minefield, following carefully in the footsteps of an engineer officer, so he could pick up and carry back an Afghan man who had been horrifically injured by an old Soviet mine. When I asked Jeremy what it was like to walk through a minefield, he humbly said, "it wasn't a minefield--it was a field with mines in it." I am personally thankful that Jeremy deployed with us. But it was also hard to watch this amazingly brave and compassionate man be depressed for months in Afghanistan and then spend the next year or so after his release from active duty wasting away with heavy drinking and substance use. Fortunately he is now recovered and thriving as a youth pastor in Section, Alabama, and will soon be married to lovely Crystal and graduate with his bachelor's degree later this year.

The end of stop-loss came too late for Jeremy, but it will spare countless soldiers the emotional toll of having their lives put on hold or being forced into the dangers and consequences of multiple combat tours. It will also spare soldiers who have completed their active term of service from being recalled from inactive duty for deployment. But it does not take immediate effect; many soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are currently serving on stop-loss. Stop-loss will finally end for active duty soldiers in January 2010, and reservists and guardsmen will see it end in August and September of this year. In the interim, stop-lossed soldiers will receive a payment of $500 for each month they serve beyond their original contract.

Another medic who deployed with my unit to Afghanistan in 2006 is Danielle Knudsen, and she has been stop-lossed through the end of January 2010 to serve on her unit's rear detachment at Fort Drum, New York, in support of her unit while it is deployed in Afghanistan. Because of a hip injury she suffered while serving in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan--she took a severe fall when walking on a rugged goat path in a mountain village on a humanitarian medical mission--Danielle was medically ineligible for deployment with her current unit. She was originally scheduled to get out of the Army on May 22 of this year, and she looked forward to using her G.I. Bill benefits to attend nursing school full-time, get married to her fiancé (who is also an Afghanistan veteran), and begin her civilian life.

Danielle described to me when her entire unit a few months ago discovered they had been stop-lossed through the end of January 2010--they were all incredulous and outraged. "I wanted to protest," she told me. Even though she knew they had no control over the stop-loss policy, Danielle envisioned a sit-in protest of her unit's commander and first sergeant. "I wanted us to have beer and chairs and signs," she told me, "but nobody else would do it with me." Her unit is in Afghanistan's eastern mountains right now, and many of them for the second time--and on stop-loss. As for the $500 monthly payment, Danielle told me, first and foremost, that she doesn't feel like it's fair to all past stop-lossed soldiers that the payments will be made only for the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years. But, if she receives the payments, she can definitely use it for extra savings to support her once she starts nursing school next year. But she doesn't really believe that she or anyone else in her unit will be seeing the money. "I just don't think the government has that kind of money to pay out right now," she told me. She'll believe it when she sees it.