Army Reserve Captain Brad Schwan is suing his service, according to this week’s Army Times (subscription required to read article).
You know what? I hope he loses. It’s not because he shouldn’t be able to resign his commission. I don’t mind that tradition. It’s the double standard idea that I abhor. Letting officers do things that enlisted troops cannot is morally wrong. I realize power hath its privileges, but I don’t like them in the context of government service.
Right now, sitting here in Baghdad, I am serving with a sergeant whose contract ran out three weeks ago. He doesn’t get to go home. He’s on stop loss (which some people call the backdoor draft). Stop loss is a policy whereby the military arbitrarily decides that because we’re in the middle of a war, you, as an individual soldier, don’t get to end your service contract when you and the Army agreed it would end. I personally think it’s morally wrong that the government feels it is OK for them to dishonor their end of a signed agreement when the individual who signed the agreement would go to jail if he or she failed to live up to their end of the bargain.
However, if I must live with bad policies (and there are thousands of them), I would prefer they be applied as equally as possible to all segments of the military, including commissioned officers. I am glad that Capatain Schwan is getting some publicity. His lawsuit may bring put some needed public attention on a grave wrong the military is doing to those who sacrifice their individuality for a contractual period of years in order to try and serve their fellow citizens.
Only the government could even contemplate servitude by force as a method of dealing with a recruiting and retention problem caused by the government. A lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are simply unwilling to deploy to a combat zone every other year. I know I am not. It would wreak havoc on my marriage.
As wrong as I think “stop loss” is, I believe that officers should be held to the same exact standards as the enlisted and NCO personnel who serve under them. If we must suck it up then they must as well. Captain Schwanz I would like to welcome you to the Army of One (Standard for Everyone).