The military's new Catch-22
To understand the effect of the Army's "stop loss" (what some call the "back-door draft"), it's important to know how this sudden extension of military service affects those caught up in it. And to know that for those who volunteer to serve for a limited time -- and then are told they must continue in service long after they thought they could go home -- the issue is not partisan.
It is neither Republican nor Democratic. It is not a statement for or against the U.S. mission in Iraq. It is simply a shocker: a mysterious and sometimes unfathomable trip into a kind of Twilight Zone that has left thousands of military volunteers confused and disillusioned -- and sometimes deployed when they feel they should not be -- but still patriotic.
Todd Parrish, 31, went to college on an ROTC scholarship, with a commitment to serve four years of active duty and four years in the Reserve after graduation. He completed those commitments in December 2003. That's when he married Colette Doyle. "We waited until my contract with the military was over, so we could build a life free of obligations I created before I met her," Parrish says.
In March, Parrish and his new wife bought a house in Cary, N.C. In April, he accepted a promotion to run his company's engineering department. In May, he received orders, by regular mail, calling him up for active duty. He was to report to Ft. Sill, Okla., on June 11.
"It's just a mistake," he soothingly told his distraught wife. He could easily correct it. He phoned the Army's Human Resources Command in St. Louis, told them that they'd made an error, that he had already completed his eight-year contractual agreement.
"At first they said I hadn't served my active duty. I produced paperwork to show that I had." He also produced papers to prove he had completed all eight years of service. "That's when they began to claim I had not resigned my commission, therefore I was still in the Army. I sent them a copy of my original letter of resignation, which I had delivered by hand four years previously, signed by the officers in my chain of command."
The Army replied that his resignation had never been accepted. That was news to him.
"That's when I started to realize the problem was much bigger than simple paperwork or a minor procedural error. The answers they gave me kept changing, based on the answers I gave to them and based on the documentation I provided."
