Despite signaling that it would no longer tap the Individual Ready Reserve, the Army calls up more troops just in time for the holidays.
My father was at the house for Christmas and in the spirit of nostalgia, beers, whiskey or whatever, we sat down at the table and talked politics into the AM hours. I brought up IRR and stop-loss...his response was, "we've got an all volunteer military". Saying that once either of these retention options are exercised, the individual is no longer a volunteer, he pointed out that everyone signed on the dotted line and the fine print is part of the contract. To me this argument has always sounded like a way of calling the soldier a sucker, without actually saying it.
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