Soldier challenges enlistment extensions
The U.S. military’s policy of extending the enlistments of tens of thousands of troops to cover needs in Iraq violates federal law and the Constitution, an Iraq war veteran is alleging in a lawsuit.
The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, is the first legal challenge to the military’s “stop-loss” program since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was filed on behalf of an Army sergeant in the California National Guard who is identified in court papers only as “John Doe.”
The sergeant’s lawsuit claims that the Army’s policy of extending enlistments, which began in the run-up to the Iraq war in November 2002, is illegal because it is based on a Sept. 14, 2001, presidential order authorizing troop call-ups to counter the threat of “further terrorist attacks.” Doe’s lawsuit says Iraq is not now a terrorist threat, so the order can’t be used to extend tours of duty there.
The lawsuit comes at a time when the Pentagon, faced with a need to keep more troops in Iraq than it originally forecast, has resorted to a series of moves that critics say underscores how overstretched the military – and the Army in particular – has become.
The sergeant challenging the stop-loss program is a military veteran. As an Army paratrooper, he joined in the assault on Iraq in March 2003. He served there until he returned home to the San Francisco area last October. In December, he enlisted in the National Guard for a one-year term.
But last month, his unit was told that it would be deployed to Iraq after six months of training. Doe’s lawsuit says that his enlistment could be extended for two additional years.
Doe might not have to return to Iraq; his attorneys say he has left training to be treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. Nonetheless, they say, he will press the lawsuit in the hope that it will lead to a court ruling against the stop-loss orders .
Doe “is a patriot,” said Joshua Sondheimer, one of his lawyers. “But he thinks the Army shouldn’t be able to extend his enlistment because they say they want to.”
The Army has successfully defended stop-loss programs by citing a 1968 law that allows it to extend wartime enlistments until six months after a war has ended. Such orders have been used during the Vietnam and Kosovo conflicts and during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. During the Gulf War, the military relied on the 1968 law to win a challenge to such an order filed by a Georgia soldier. It is the only legal precedent for a claim like that made by Doe, Sondheimer said.