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Current and former Airmen who were involuntarily held on active duty beyond an approved separation or retirement date as a result of stop loss between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2009, may be eligible for a Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay compensation of $500 for each whole or partial month they were affected. The 2009 War Supplemental Appropriation Act set aside $534.4 million for the Retroactive Stop-Loss Special Pay compensation authority. The Air Force used stop loss for Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 and 2002 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Airmen have until Dec. 3, 2010, to...

Federal investigators probing the “flash crash” that briefly sliced nearly 1,000 points off the Dow Thursday are zeroing in on a series of “unusually high-volume” trades in S&P futures that originated in Chicago, a government official told POLITICO. Those trades set off a chain reaction of trades that caused the biggest drop within a single day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s storied history.

This money is to be paid to pepole that were held past their enlistment while serving in OIF and OEF.I was one of them I was held 11 months.It's all been a big joke I applied Nov. 6,2009 still waiting on a response.Cases are supposed to be prossesed and paid in the order recieved.I have a friend with a case# that follows mine his claim has been sent to DFAS to be paid.Just wondering if any FReepers are in the same boat I am.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2009 – The Defense Department will implement a new program this week to compensate former and current servicemembers for each month they involuntarily served from Sept. 11, 2001 to Sept. 30, 2009, a defense official said. Congress approved an appropriation bill last summer, giving the department $534 million over the next year for an estimated 185,000 servicemembers affected by the “Stop Loss” authority since 9/11, said Sam Retherford, director for the department’s officer and enlisted personnel management office. In an interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service, Retherford explained that qualified servicemembers will receive...

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2009 – The force drawdown in Iraq, even in light of increased troop strength in Afghanistan, will enable the military to build more dwell time into deployment cycles, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today. “I think that with reduced forces in Iraq and with force levels I see in the future for Afghanistan, we can start to build more time at home,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during a Pentagon Channel podcast interview. “I think that’s absolutely vital.” Mullen has been a staunch advocate of “home time” or “home tempo” to balance the...

NEW YORK Sgt. Jason Dene, the nephew of actress and activist Mia Farrow, died in Iraq last week and his uncle blames George W. Bush for the loss. , "To date all the family has heard from the Army is that Jason variously died 'in his sleep' ...' in other words, natural causes." Whatever the cause, Patrick Farrow feels he knows what really killed his nephew: "Because of the arrogant, corrupt lies of George W. Bush and his neo-con handlers my nephew is dead, and I am mad as hell...Jason Dene was not killed by enemy fire nor friendly fire...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Last weekend, Hollywood offered moviegoers -- particularly younger ones -- a choice. They options were a glossy movie about a bunch of sexy MIT whiz kids beating the house in Las Vegas and a gritty movie about a bunch of sexy young soldiers who, after completing their tour of duty in Iraq, learn they are being redeployed to the front. Overwhelmingly, audiences opted for Sony's "21," which opened in first place to $24.1 million, over Paramount/MTV Films' "Stop-Loss," which bowed in eighth place with just $4.6 million. In a "memo to Hollywood" posted on his...

Top 20 Countdown host Lance Smith joins the cast of Stop-Loss, on top of the famous Riot Hyatt hotel overlooking Sunset Boulevard for a special edition of Top 20. The movie features Iraq war hero Sgt. Brandon King, who is played by Ryan Phillippe, as he makes his long awaited return home only to find out the Army has ordered him back to duty in Iraq, which devastates not only him but his family and friends.

Have you ever heard or seen something that sped up your heartrate and gave you that fight-or-flight adrenaline rush just because it was such a blatant and poisonously lie? It enraged you because even though you knew it was clearly a lie, other people right around you didn't know better and probably ate it up? That's how I felt two months ago when I sat in a Manhattan movie theater packed with left-wing yuppies and the preview for Stop-Loss, which opened this weekend, flickered on the screen. The premise of the movie is this: Army war hero and small-town everyman...

I'm told Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office.

...I'm told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this...

Real-Life Drama Fuels 'Stop-Loss' Director Peirce Examines Military Loophole In Soldier DramaTim Lammers, Web Staff Editor POSTED: 3:56 pm EDT March 26, 2008 While the timing of the release of the new military drama "Stop-Loss" comes on the heels of the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, the last thing director and co-writer Kimberly Peirce wants people to think is that she's launched some sort of cinematic protest against the government. In fact, the film, which opens in theaters Friday, is not so much about the war itself as it is the people who are serving in...

Pentagon cuts stop-loss By Roxana Tiron Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is ordering military service chiefs to reduce the use of a controversial policy intended to keep troops in war zones beyond the end of their original commitments, according to a document obtained by The Hill. In a memo sent to the service chiefs, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and undersecretaries of defense, Gates asked to see plans to minimize the use of the so-called stop-loss policy for active duty and reserve components by the end of next month. Gates’s directive comes at a time when the...

WASHINGTON — The Army is likely to make a temporary 30,000 increase in troop numbers permanent as it struggles to ease the burden on forces strained by the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Army general said Thursday. The general, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the boost in the Army's ranks had become necessary for the military to meet its growing overseas commitments. A year ago, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld allowed the Army to temporarily boost its ranks by 30,000 to reduce stress on the force. But he has long opposed a permanent increase in...

These words flashed across the TV screen as I was getting ready for work one recent morning. It was just some copy that came up there, rather matter of factly, and it was followed by the name of a U.S. Army Cavalry unit that has now had its deployment tour extended in Iraq at least twice. Its current time in country is approaching fourteen months. It is not alone. Virtually every unit there now will be affected, I am sure. Total U.S. troop strength will soon reach the 150,000 man level in anticipation of security needs for the upcoming elections...

A cursory examination of hard data on the ground makes it seem ludicrous to plant the axiom that the US could eventually lose our bid to democratic Iraq, Afghanistan and other authoritarian hellholes scattered throughout the Middle East. Our Marine Corps just finished demolishing the heart of the Al-Quaida-backed elements of the Iraqi resistance. The rapid and complete purging of Fallujah sent a message to our enemies. Unfortunately, other actions on our part send them a message as well. That message reads that our front line military troops may prove indominatable in open battle, but that in many cases, the...

We'll soon have 150,000 U.S. troops stuck in the ever-expanding Iraqi quagmire, a number that will probably grow even larger before Iraq holds elections presently scheduled for the end of January '05. Maintaining such a force is a logistical and personnel nightmare for every grunt in Iraq. And according to several Pentagon number crunchers, it's also driving the top brass bonkers. Meanwhile the insurgents continue cutting our supply lines and whacking our fighting platoons and supporters, who attrit daily as soldiers and Marines fall to enemy shots, sickness or accidents. Empty platoons lose fights, so these casualties have to be...

No one ever said military life was easy or predictable, and Iraq and Afghanistan have only made it harder. Still, it was only a matter of time before someone sued the Pentagon over it. This week, that's precisely what happened. Eight servicemen filed a lawsuit yesterday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge the Pentagon's stop-loss policy. The Pentagon, which has been using stop-loss to retain enlistees beyond their intended periods of service, defends the policy as a means of keeping unit cohesion and maintaining overall manpower levels. But the servicemen are saying stop-loss violates their...

MORRILTON, Ark., Dec. 3 - The eight soldiers come from places scattered across the country, from this small town an hour northwest of Little Rock to cities in Arizona, New Jersey and New York. In Iraq and Kuwait, where they all work now, most of them hold different jobs in different units, miles apart. Most have never met. But the eight share a bond of anger: each says he has been prevented from coming home for good by an Army policy that has barred thousands of soldiers from leaving Iraq this year even though the terms of enlistment they signed...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A National Guard soldier lost his bid to avoid being sent to Iraq, but his challenge of a military program that involuntarily extends his enlistment in the service will continue in court. U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell Jr. ruled Friday that there was no need for an injunction stopping the soldier's transfer to Iraq later this month because his California National Guard enlistment does not expire until May. Damrell said the legal matter will be decided on its merits before then. If the unnamed soldier prevails, he can be sent home in the spring by court order....