Posted on 10/15/2006 10:38:58 PM PDT by World_Events
LINDENHURST, Ill. (AP) An Army staff sergeant was days away from retirement after a 20-year military career when he was ordered to return to his unit, which will be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month.
James Engle applied for retirement in January and later received a retirement award from the Army during a ceremony in Texas. On Sept. 20 he was told paperwork was missing and he should report to his unit, the 1st Cavalry Division.
Late last month, the Army denied his retirement request along with a request to exempt him from his unit's deployment saying it was ``neither compelling nor compassionate enough in nature,'' even though a military retirement counselor had scheduled his Army release for Sept. 21.
``I feel like I'm twisting in the wind,'' Engle said. ``I keep being told that there has been a big, huge mistake. Well, this big, huge mistake has turned my life completely around.''
Engle's lieutenant, Frank Lyle, said he is working with Army personnel to solve the problem.
A telephone call Sunday to the Army's public affairs office at the Pentagon for comment was not immediately returned.
Engle, 38, of Lindenhurst joined the Army in August 1986. During his two decades with the military he spent nine years in combat zones, including Somalia, Bosnia and Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs2chicago.com ...
Ouch.
I've got an idea--why not deploy this good soldier to help patrol our border with Mexico--in California?
The anti-war movement is having their desired effect. They say they support our soldiers, yet they try to kick the recruiters off campus.
That's the Army! I remember them offering SFC supply assignments to veteran helicopter pilots right after the Vietnam war. These guys had survived the meat grinder and were still serving in Korea, and they were shit on. The Army has always been like that. RIF and they wanted to replace them with new flyers out of Rucker. Now the shoe is on the other foot, and they are casting about for bodies.
Still this wasn't an act of God. Somebody in personnel took a dump on this guy.
The Army and their great PAC system. It screwed me out of 30 days leave once, claiming I took 51 days vacation in October, 2000. Funny, I thought October only had 31 days?
"It screwed me out of 30 days leave once,"
I was always good at working the army, after jump school me and six other artillery instructors were given 2 weeks to get to Fort Lewis.
I took an extra week or two because I correctly guessed that no one would punish me, the old unit didn't care, and the new unit didn't want to get involved in something that they could ignore.
Other than a question by an NCO the night I checked in, where I looked him in the eye and said something like, no, I'm pretty sure everything is OK, it was never brought up.
That's a hypothetical offered 5 years after the fact. I haven't spoken with him since the week of 9-11-2001. His family was already relocated to northern California and he was called back to duty ASAP that week. He was working part time at American Shooting Center in San Diego at that time. I've since moved to Idaho, so it is unlikely we will cross paths again.
It's things like this that gave birth to the word "SNAFU"!
This country needs these men and women who devote their lives, by choice, to the U.S. military. Stories such as this one, do not help re-enlistment efforts. This was a bad decision on someone's part, and I wouldn't doubt that it was personal and not a critical military necessity.
I got out in 76 after 8 years. I'd have retired with 20 in 1988 and have been retired almost 18 years. But even if they called me up today (they can't unless they start drafing over 55), I'd drop my engineering job of 25 years and go in a heartbeat....
Because he is regular forces, not National Guard.
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