Soldier's ticket out of Iraq may backfire (re-enlist to get better duty)

[uppityperson]

Soldiers are re-enlisting to avoid job-loss getting stuck in Iraq, hoping for a better deployment. Incredible.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003640835_reenlist29m.html

Spc. Joel Trainor is a 22-year-old combat medic from Seattle who spent a year in Iraq. He returned home weary of bloodshed and eager to avoid a return trip that would separate him from his wife and infant daughter. So in February, Trainor re-enlisted in the Army for three more years.

That might seem like an odd way to try to stay out of the war. But Trainor believed re-enlistment was the only way to avoid an involuntary extension of his contract that would send him back to combat. Re-enlistment officers told him re-upping would allow him to transfer to a job at Fort Lewis, he said. "Absolutely, if I had a choice, I would have gotten out of the Army this year," said Trainor, whose initial contract with the military was set to end this September. "That wasn't going to happen."

In recent weeks, Trainor has learned that he may wind up back in Iraq after all. His commanders with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell in Kentucky told him his battalion is short of medics, and they've balked at signing his transfer to Fort Lewis.

Trainor's story offers an unusual window into wartime re-enlistments. Cash bonuses, education benefits and other incentives have helped the Army meet or exceed re-enlistment quotas that are crucial to maintaining troop strength. For some, another powerful motivator is the desire to avoid a return to war. Sometimes, the only way to do that is to re-up for another stint in the Army, and thus gain a transfer out of an Iraq-bound unit.

In his battalion of 700 soldiers, Trainor says, he can count about a dozen such transfers. Army officials confirm that some soldiers who don't want to return to Iraq have re-enlisted to try to gain a transfer to other posts. "There's nothing dishonorable about wanting to keep serving, but not necessarily to serve there ," said Master Sgt. Terry Webster, a Fort Campbell public-affairs officer...(more@link)

[uppityperson]

1. any comments? thanks.

I am appalled at the whole thing. Re-enlist to avoid stop-loss.

[drm604]

2. "Re-enlist to avoid stop-loss."

Then end up in Iraq anyway. x(

[uppityperson]

3. damned if you do, damned if you don't. Interesting take on it.

Interesting in the article about people trying to not go.

[uppityperson]

4. 1 kick for the daytime DUers, just to get more info out.

In vet's forum the consensus of the few who responded was he should have known better. I wanted to put this piece out so others of us who are not vets (even those who are) can see some of the extremes people are going through, AND the fact that he is not the only 1 trying this and why they are. "In his battalion of 700 soldiers, Trainor says, he can count about a dozen such transfers. Army officials confirm that some soldiers who don't want to return to Iraq have re-enlisted to try to gain a transfer to other posts. "There's nothing dishonorable about wanting to keep serving, but not necessarily to serve there ," said Master Sgt. Terry Webster, a Fort Campbell public-affairs officer."