It has been a good while since I've blogged. I'm starting now.

USA Today's DeWayne Wickham is his editorial column yesterday entitled "A 15 month enlisment? Better check the fine print" is a wonderful example of the ignorance of journalist's knowledge about the military. He states,

Everyone who enters the all-volunteer military incurs a total service obligation of eight years, a portion of which is spent on active duty. For the remainder of this time, the enlistee can be called back into uniform at the government's discretion under a program called "stop-loss."

This is untrue. Upon completion of an individual's first active or reserve duty enlistment contract (any where from 15 months-6 years) enlistee is then transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) to complete the eight years. They are only required to update their home address and contact information with their corresponding command. It requires no active duty service. The military does have the authority to place the enlistee back onto active duty from the IRR if deemed necessary. The 'stop loss' directive does not bring someone back into the active duty ranks like the IRR, but rather keeps them from leaving the active or reserve component. It keeps personnel in valuable specialties such as linguistics and intelligence from leaving before suitable replacements can be recruited and trained.

The difference might be insignificant to most but to us in the military it means a good deal. This would make Mr. Wickham's opinion piece much more compelling were he to include this distinction between 'stop loss' and the IRR.