Stop loss?

Question

My husband is supposed to ETS November 11th this year. We both decided about a year ago that we just want a simple civilian life to raise a family in. No deployments, feild excersizes, or other stressful interruptions. I personally just can't handle it when he's gone anymore. We're expecting our first child in september. Now he's been told that there will be a deployment next february and that stop loss will catch him november 2nd. 9 days before he gets out. He had been told that as long as he was on terminal leave before then, stop loss wouldn't effect him. Now they are saying that it will. Does anybody know about this? I would like to know what I need to plan for, moving away into civilian life, or preparing for a deployment and making preparations to raise my new baby alone. Please don't give me any crap about how I should have expected the deployments and that I don't support our military. My hubby served his time, now we just want a peaceful, deployment free existance.

I believe it was his commander that told him he should be home free with terminal leave, but don't quote me. I think it was his sgt that told him that it won't matter and he'll go anyway. My hubby is planning to go ahead and get his terminal leave since the deployment is subject to change. If it gets pushed back I know that he'll get out, but there's no way of knowing if it will until it happens. I just wish they would give us one answer instead of jerking us around.

Answer 1

Don't speak to the CO - speak to the First Sergeant. One of the things that commonly happens is that transfer orders are cut to shuffle people around before stop loss/stop movement takes effect. This way those people in other units who want to volunteer get to go and the short timers can ETS.

Answer 2

Hey,
I feel for you. I was stressed [and not expecting a baby] as can be when my hubby started to get out and he also did the terminal leave before. He told me they can call you back from terminal leave to so it was stressful few months.
I hate to say but what I learned was if there was a impending deployment then he was going. They almost stopped my hubby and it was months off.
One thing he did do was ship his stuff as soon as possible and also tried to collect all necessary signatures as soon as he could. He kept the process going. I personally think it helped.
I would prepare for the deployment unless you hear otherwise but things can change. There is no solid way of knowing unfortunately. It may work out, I will keep you in my prayers.

Answer 3

You/He will need to speak to the CO - bearing in mind that it isn't ultimately his decision either. Ask him to refer you to the proper people who can answer questions better -- unfortunatly they may just not know yet either. There are many factors that will affect you his MOS, unit strength at the time of deployment, rd needs, etc. Unfortunatly those are things that can't always be seen ahead of time. Orders change at the last minute for everyone.

Personally I would prepare for both scenarios. Decide weather you want to move to where you were planning if he still has to go, rent the property (if you have it) or what; make sure everything is in order, trust in God to do what's best for you (He's the one in ultimate authority not the Army) and go from there. Worrying every day from now till then will not do you, hubby or baby any good - all you can do is be prepared for both as much as possible.

I understand the frustration(big deep breath) - been through stop loss twice now, as well as normal Army stuff. Truly they usually aren't trying to jerk you around - they really don't know yet either.

Answer 4

There is something you are not being told. Stop loss will not prevent him from going before the board. The only possible way this makes sense is if he is so short that he does not have enough time in service left to accept the promotion. But that happens after the board and he will get a chance to re-up to accept the promotion. If he were flagged against favorable action, that would keep him away from the board.

Answer 5

Erin I would Say you need to Ask your question to a higher authority it is very hard to predict what the future in a situation like this might be. However being on Terminal leave while i was in held precedence. Because you are already processed out. But Because they have already notified of stop loss they may just not approve his terminal leave. The best thing to do is have him ask his senior chain of command and if he doesn't you might want to talk to his Platoon Sgt your self if no help go up the chain till you get answers. If you want more information either pm me or e-mail me i do have some questions as to when his terminal leave starts.

Answer 6

Stop loss and jerking our family around is what the army does to people. We've experienced it first hand. For example, I'm 8 mos. pregnant, my husbands unit blows big time and didn't even start the paper work to possibly give him the chance to deploy one month later like the others in different sections of his brigade. So I went back to the states since that is where my fam. support is (and thankfully i have my own insurance since the clinic here in germany claims tricare won't cover birth in the states if your spouse is stationed overseas) and got a call 2 weeks ago from my husband to try and come back since the army can't get its deployment orders right in the first place. Luckily there was some light in this since he'll be able to see the baby birth w/ a later deployment, but imagine if I were ERODed (early return of dependent) and gave up my apt. b.c. our pcs date (which was supposed to be nov.) was extended due to the deployment and he was stop lossed crossing out his chance to leave this ate up unit. It's frustrating to say the least. If I were erod-ed and wanted to live with him in germany when he returned, he'd have to hang himself on an extended contract for 3 more years b.c. stop loss messed up everything! Or I could of course stay w/ him on my own dime in germany, but everyone knows how much the euro is crushing the dollar and on a soldiers salary that is near impossibile. So I'm assuming stop loss is a way to encourage reenlistment in a forcible way if your spouse needs to return stateside for family support w/ a new baby for whatever reason. It's unfair as is a lot of life, but no wonder many e-6's and other critical enlisted ranks don't even want to re-up/reenlist--the stop loss isn't very inspiring for one to continue on in military life when it's just one big mess on top of having to deal w/ a unit that sucks. People who have been at the base I'm at right now and have 13+ years under their belt have never been to a more "messed up/ate up place" and just want to p.c.s. or deploy rather than deal w/ this crap. I'm definitely a dissenting voice when his time to reenlist/ets arises, and luckily he's beginning to see the light and that what he deals w/ and what's thrown at us is NOT WORTH IT!

Answer 7

WEll technically just because yor husband is "out" he is still an inactive ready reservist fopr a few years and can be called to active duty, so if there is a stop loss and he is in the window of terminal as they call it he can and most likely will be effedted they can extened him against his will becasue technically his commitment to the service is still not over even if he is not active duty

Answer 8

you won't know until he gets the notification that he will not be allowed to seperate. and yes, he could be already on terminal leave when the paperwork comes down, because while he is on TL, he is still subject recall.

all you can do is plan for the worst.

Answer 9

To me it sounds like there's nothing you can do about it. Like the guy above, I have heard of people about to get out and they are stop lossed and sent to Iraq. Good luck to your husband, you and your baby.

Answer 10

ignore the first poster.

There are procedures your husband can go through.

It isn't easy, but both of my friends who are anticipating stop-loss re-deployment, split the cost of a cheap civil-rights-lawyer in D.C. about $2k each, which they are suing to be reimbursed lawyer-fees.

Search for civil rights lawyers in D.C. and ask them if they have successfully won a stop-loss case and got reimbursement for legal expenses.