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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
Soldier slavery in U.S. Army?
General says 'indefinite re-enlistment'
important tool to retain good soldiers
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By David M. Bresnahan
� 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Although the U.S. Army's recently introduced program of "indefinite
re-enlistment" is touted as a means of improving the service's
highly-publicized lagging retention rates, at least one soldier says the new
policy has turned him into a virtual slave.
"In 1999, the Army re-instituted slavery. Oh, they don't call it slavery,
that would be too obvious. No, they needed a new age kind of label for their
scheme. They called it indefinite re-enlistment," Sgt. First Class David
Gloer told WorldNetDaily in a phone interview from Korea, where he is
currently serving with the 751st Military Intelligence Battalion.
Maj. Gen. Thomas W. Garrett disagrees and calls indefinite re-enlistment a
success story.
"We believe implementation of the indefinite re-enlistment program is good
for the professional NCO Corps, good for the Army, and good for our country.
It will bolster the professional NCO Corps image while providing a sense of
security for those soldiers committed to the Army; enhance our Army's
retention rates; and assure we have a strong backbone to support our national
military strategy," said Garrett, commanding general for the U.S. Total Army
Personnel Command, or PERSCOM, in a statement issued last year.
Sgt. David Gloer says he is a slave of the U.S. Army.
According to Garrett and Army documents, Army soldiers with 10 years of more
of active service must re-enlist for an indefinite term, rather than for a
specified number of years.
"The program will be mandatory and apply to all regular Army soldiers in the
rank of staff sergeant to command sergeant major who are eligible for
re-enlistment and have at least 10 or more years of active federal service on
the date of re-enlistment. Soldiers pending a personnel action, such as a MOS
medical retention board or reclassification action will be permitted to
extend their enlistment for short periods," explained Garrett.
Gloer claims the Army has taken the drastic step of forcing soldiers to
re-enlist under the new program because "the Army has found itself unable to
meet recruiting or retention goals." Garrett disagreed in his statement and
claims the Army is not having a problem retaining good soldiers. As recently
as last summer, Garrett said the Army has been exceeding its re-enlistment
goals for initial and mid-term soldiers.
"This ensures continued high personnel readiness during some turbulent
times," Garrett wrote in a letter to soldiers. "We do need your support,
however, to meet our goals to retain those soldiers whose active duty
obligation ends this fiscal year."
One solution to the Army's retention problem that was implemented is the
Indefinite re-enlistment Program. Under this program, soldiers with 10 years
or more of active service who re-enlist must do so for an indefinite term.
The Army says that this program is to provide soldiers with "greater
flexibility," and that once those soldiers have completed their remaining
service requirements, they will be able to request to leave the service
whenever they wish. The Army says further that it will approve those
requests, regardless of commander's recommendations, based on Army strength
levels.
"After re-enlisting for the indefinite program, a soldier will request
voluntary separation or retirement, provided all service remaining
requirements have been fulfilled, in a manner similar to officers," explained
Garrett.
Sgt. David Gloer says it is too difficult to raise five children on Army pay.
Gloer put in a request for retirement in June 1999, asking for a retirement
date of June 2000. He was turned down by every officer in his unit.
"I wasn't worried," he recalled, "After all, there was no justification to
disprove my retirement. My job (98G40 Korean linguist) was over-strength and
I was working outside my specialty. I was certain that the checks and
balances would take effect and common sense would prevail," said Gloer.
He was wrong. Gloer says he requested and received two investigations by the
office of the Inspector General and four congressional investigations.
"It became clear that there are no checks and balances. If you have a problem
with the Army, you write to your congressman, who sends a nice form letter to
the Army. The Army sends a nice form letter back, after investigating
themselves and pronouncing themselves innocent -- naturally," explained
Gloer.
Gloer will have 20 years of service as of June, including 13 years in Korea.
He was told by the Army that he cannot retire because he hasn't been in Korea
long enough, he said.
The indefinite re-enlistment program was approved by Congress and signed into
law by President Clinton as part of the 1997 Defense Authorization Bill. Only
the Army has instituted the program.
Gloer is not the only one who has run into problems trying to retire from the
Army. He is currently organizing others who have run into problems with the
hope of organizing an effort to change the law.
Indefinite re-enlistment went into effect in October 1999, and Garrett says
it is "one of the Army's best initiatives to support retention of our career
noncommissioned officers."
Gloer says it is slavery.
"I hope that anyone considering indefinite re-enlistment will think twice.
Once you sign that paper, you're not giving up two or three years of your
life. It's 'till death do us part,' baby. And you can't quit -- ever. Slaves
can't quit -- they must be sold," said Gloer.
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David M. Bresnahan is an investigative journalist for WorldNetDaily.com
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