US soldiers in Iraq held against their will

Thoenen, Peter CIV Sprint peter.thoenen at email-tc3.5sigcmd.army.mil
Mon Aug 18 07:52:25 PDT 2003


Harmon Seaver wrote:

 > On Sun, Aug 17, 2003 at 10:37:15PM -0700, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
 >
 >>At 02:33 PM 8/17/03 -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote:
 >>
 >>>  Just heard about this local guy who reluctantly went to Iraq because
 >>
 >>>he was in the reserves, now his contract is up (as of 7/31) and they
 >>>won't let him out.
 >>
 >>Did he reluctantly take the $$$ to be in the reserves, too?
 >>
 >>
 >>>my
 >>>enlistment contract ended and the I have been involuntarily extended.
 >>
 >>SOP.  Happened during the Yugo thang too.

On a semi related side note, how long has this guy been in (total length of
service)?  All personnel
when they join the US Military are quite clearly informed they have an 8-year
commitment, regardless
of how long their initial enlistment is.  If your initial commitment is less
than 8 years, you are
moved into the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) for the remainder of the 8 years.
(E.g. you enlist for 4
years active or ready reserve (weekend warriors); you will also spend 4 years
in IRR).

While in the IRR you have no requirements other than to keep the government
informed of your current
contact information.  You have no drills and receive no benefits.  The US
Government though reserves
the right to call you up at whim any time during this period.  I am curious if
this person is still
within his 8-year commitment even though he completed his initial commitment.
If he is still within
this 8 year window, he doesnt have a leg to stand on nor my sympathy.

On that same note, any weekend warrior who complains about being activated has
no sympathy from me.
  Take the devils coin, be prepared to do his work also.  The few folk that
have my sympathy are
those IRR folk that have be activated.  I have a couple IRR buddies who
haven't so much as thought
about the military in years all of a sudden get activated for Iraq, now thats
something to complain
about.  4 years active, 3 years smoking dope in college, then a call from the
good old us army
ordering you to report to your IRR unit within 48 hours and go to Iraq.  Those
are the folk I feel
sorry for.  They did their time, got out, and didn't continue to take the
devils coin ever 4th weekend.

 >>
 >>It hasn't, it only requires males to register.  So far.
 >>
 >

How is that for some equally rights.  Women continue to whine and cry that
they are being
discriminated against in the military as the military refused to open up
certain all male MOS's (18
and 11 series to name a couple) yet I don't see them hounding congress for the
equal right to be
drafted.  Nothing like having your cake and getting to eat it to.

** OFFTOPIC: Anybody remember the exact saying (and who coined it) about if
you take the Devil's
coin, don't complain about doing the Devil's work.  I can not seem to find the
exact text **

-Peter

DISCLAIMER: Like always, this email is the personal opinion of Peter Thoenen
and not condoned by
Sprint or the US Army.

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