Tag Archives: Great Britain

In the past month the Pentagon has made some big changes that haven’t gotten much publicity but I think are worthy of mentioning.  First, the Pentagon has lifted the ban on media recording the arrive of fallen soldiers into Dover Air Force Base. Barack Obama asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to review the policy. Gates changed the nearing two decade policy to leave the choice to the family of the fallen soldiers on whether they want to permit media at the repatriation.  I remembered this video that shows the differences between fallen soldiers being return here in the U.S. and those being returned to Great Britain. The video also shows the two sides of showing the repatriation.

The Pentagon also announced it will be phasing out the unpopular “stop-loss” program (remember that movie, it had Channing Tatum in it) which basically involuntarily extends soldier’s tours beyond their contracts without any recourse for these soldiers. The policy only applied to the Army and was meant to keep units together during their tours. Up to January there were 13,217 soldiers who had their tours extended under the stop-loss program. The Pentagon plans on offering bonuses for those who were stop-lost and discontinue the practice. I think that it is sad that it took this long for the policy to be changed. These soldiers have already fulfilled their commitment to serve our country and they should be treated better than this.