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I have a co-worker whose son is a doctor in the Army. He was told by his recruiter that he would serve 4 years and all of his med school debts would be wiped out. He was told that since he was going to be a general practioner, there was no chance that he would ever end up in combat zone because only surgeons go to combat. Well, he is still in the U.S., but some of the other general practioners have indeed been sent to Iraq. He's also told now, after 2 years of service so far, that he will not be released after 4 if we are still at war and that they can keep him as long as they need him because of the (terminology?) stop release program. Also, he will be in the reserves after his stint as an active and that could also be extended. The rules changed after some of these boys signed up.
There are other rules that changed too, like how long they can be overseas and how long a time period it is before they have to go back.
Did anybody see the 60 Minutes episode where they were talking to men who had served years and years and were being called back when they were in their late 40's, and 50's? One of them had paperwork saying that he would never be called back and he tried to fight it, but the military had him down as a different type of discharge than his papers said. I wish I could remember the exact terminology they were using, but I'm far from being a military expert.
I don't see how we can continue much longer in this endeavor without instituting the draft.
The rules have been tossed out the window.
I don't know that Mrs. Sheehan is going about this in the most positive way, but I do believe that she's grief stricken and should be getting some counseling to deal with the tragedy that she is facing.
vent
We've managed to conveniently ignore our moral imperatives in other countries. It took us forever to intervene with Bosnia, we are ignoring (for the most part) Sudan, we are ignoring our own people at home who are suffering because of lack of health care and mental health treatment or prescription coverage, or jobs.
Total hijack, but every single viaduct on my way to work is now occupied. It breaks my heart every day when I drive to work and worry about what happens when there are no more viaducts for people to live under. Until this summer, there were only about 3 taken. Now it's around 15.
/vent
Dee
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