Stop Loss bonuses now available for eligible troops

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• It’s bonus time for members of the military whose service was involuntarily extended under Stop Loss. Stop Loss is DoD term when a service member’s term is extended — and it can occur even without their consent under the enlistment contract. While it is less of an issue these days, it has been used to retain service members beyond their initial end of term of service. There are 145,000 troops who were stop-lossed and are eligible for an average payout of $3,700 — but and only 30,000 of them have applied. DOD officials are asking service members to literally ‘tell a friend,’ and if they know somebody who may be eligible for this benefit, the deadline is Oct. 21.
• Two Defense analysts say the Quadrennial Defense Review Panel will spark debate about America’s role in the world. And it’s an important debate as the size of the Pentagon’s budget continues to grow. Here’s some stats for you –defense spending is higher now than at any time since the end of World War II and the base defense budget is higher than at the peak of the Reagan buildup. And the U.S. investment in military force has grown well beyond Cold War levels. The Sustainable Defense Task Force found that if the Pentagon fails to reign in military spending it could end up hurting the Defense Department in the long run. Foreign Policy reports that both the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen have pointed out how vital economic security is to national security.

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