Posted on 01/10/2003 12:35:22 AM PST by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
January 9, 2003
WASHINGTON: Preparing for possible war against Iraq, the Marine Corps has taken the unusual step of stopping all Marines from leaving the service for the coming 12 months, officials said Thursday.
The decision was announced to all Marines in an internal message Tuesday from Gen. James Jones, the Marine Corps commandant. He said it applies to active-duty as well as reserve Marines and is effective Jan. 15 through Jan. 31, 2004.
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The last time the Marines took this action, known as "stop-loss," was during the buildup to the 1991 Gulf War, said Capt. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at the Combat Development Command at Quantico, Va.
Although the order applies to the entire Marine Corps, which has 173,000 men and women on active duty and 100,000 in the reserves, some exceptions can be made, including for those who already have a retirement date of April 1 or earlier. Commanders also can consider exceptions for personal hardship and other circumstances.
Separately, 125 Marine Corps reservists with Company A, 8th Tank Battalion, based at Fort Knox, Ky., were reporting for active duty Thursday. Sgt. Maj. Timothy J. Didas of the 8th battalion said in a telephone interview that the reservists are to report to the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Friday.
Another 20 reservists in support positions with the 8th battalion, including cooks, radio operators and motor vehicle repairmen are being mobilized from bases in New York, Kentucky, South Carolina and Miami along with Company A, Didas said.
Didas said he had no information on whether the reservists were going to deploy to the Persian Gulf area. During the buildup to the 1991 Gulf War the entire 8th Tank Battalion was activated and deployed to the Gulf.
Last fall the Army issued "stop loss" orders for nearly all its Special Forces soldiers, who are heavily engaged in the war in Afghanistan, although the action did not apply to the rest of the force. The Marines are the only ones to apply a "stop loss" action to all service members.
In addition to the approximately 1,000 Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force who recently arrived in Kuwait in anticipation of a possible war against Iraq, thousands more are either heading to the Gulf region from U.S. bases or are preparing to do so in coming weeks.
Specific figures are classified, but Jones said Wednesday in remarks at the National Press Club that if there is a war in Iraq, the Marines likely would contribute between 65,000 and 75,000 troops – mostly from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The Pentagon's Iraq war plan calls for the use of up to 250,000 troops from all services.
Farewell young "freedom fighter".
That's terrific, Phil. I've been sending too. It's great to hear back. God bless our military.
God Bless all our troops, their families, our veterans and our Canadian and Israeli allies. We pray for your safe and soon return. Thank you for doing the jobs you do to keep this UNITED STATES OF AMERICA safe. We love all of you.
Thank you Lurker, Toby, Tom Cat, Kyle, Joe, Jake, the Z-Tar, Sneakers, Scully and the Pirates, Brook, Leatherneck Rangler Jody, Cory, Jimmy, Winky, Chez, Martin, John, David C, Parker, Michael, Smitty, David, and Carol for being part of our family. Thank you to all who enter the Canteen. Salute!
BTW our ISP cahnged it's DNS and IP server numbers yesterday. The change did not affect dial-up which I use. So far no problems. This is an update from a post on the Foxhole thread from eariler this week.
You're welcome J
Did you get hit by all the storms?
They can read. I thought mostly they just memorized the Koran, maybe learned how to write their name. Twas it up to me, they'd get nothing but books on the US revolutionary war and the Constitution and Bill of Rights, in English, with no pictures. Maybe the Constitution and BoR could be in Arabic or whatever it is they read.
I suppose they had to be taught what it was for and how to use it?
A man after my own heart! I would suspect that they are mighty happy to be "imprisoned" by the Americans. I also suspect that they think we are weak because of our "coddling" of them. They will be shown how wrong they are. God bless our Military and the job they do.
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