Stop - loss policy Stop - loss is a term primarily used in the United States military . In the U . S . military , it is the involuntary extension of a service member ' s active duty service under the enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond their initial end of term of service ( ETS ) date and up to their contractually agreed end of obligated service ( EOS ) . It also applies to the cessation of a permanent change of station ( PCS ) move for a member still in military service . Stop - loss was used immediately before and during the first Persian Gulf War . Since then , it has been used during deployments to Somalia , Haiti , Bosnia , Kosovo and after the September 11 attacks and the subsequent War on Terror . The policy has been legally challenged several times . However , federal courts have consistently found that military service members contractually agree that their term of service may be involuntarily extended until the end of their obligated service . Definition . Stop - loss was created by the United States Congress after the Vietnam War . Its use is founded on Title 10 , United States Code , Section 12305 ( a ) which states in part : " . . . the President may suspend any provision of law relating to promotion , retirement , or separation applicable to any member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States " and Paragraph 10 ( c ) of DD Form 4 / 1 ( The Armed Forces Enlistment Contract ) which states : " In the event of war , my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six ( 6 ) months after the war ends , unless the enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States . " Every person who enlists in a branch of the U . S . Armed Forces signs an initial contract with an eight ( 8 ) year service obligation . The enlistment contract for a person going on active duty generally stipulates an initial period of active duty from 2 to 5 years , followed by service in a reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States for the remainder of the eight year obligation . Service members whose ETS , retirement , or end of service obligation date falls during a deployment may be involuntarily extended until the end of their unit ' s deployment . Controversy . The controversy regarding stop - loss focuses mainly on the aspect involving " involuntary extension " of a service member ' s initial active duty service obligation . For service members opposed to involuntary extension , it represents implementation of a desultory clause in their contract which alters their expectation of an end of term of service date . It also exposes them to the risk of an additional or prolonged combat deployment . For opponents of a current armed conflict , the public perception of " involuntary extension " is contrary to the notion of voluntary service and undermines popular support for the conflict . In a campaign speech in 2004 , then - presidential candidate John Kerry described stop - loss as a " backdoor draft . " The use of stop - loss has been criticized by activists and some politicians as an abuse of the spirit of the law , on the basis that Congress has not formally declared war , such as is the case in the Iraq War . During August 2007 , Iraq Veterans Against the War , an activist organization of former and current service members , announced a national " Stop the Stop - Loss " campaign at a press conference where they were holding a week - long vigil in a tower erected on the National Mall in Washington , D . C . Other anti - Stop - Loss vigils have occurred in Bellingham , Washington , and Colorado Springs , Colorado . On March 10 and 11 , 2008 , a group of college students , from the organization Our Spring Break , supported by Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against the War , as well as several other organizations , issued symbolic stop - loss " orders " to every member of both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in protest of both the practice of stop - lossing , and of the Iraq War . On March 12 , 2008 , the students " enforced " the orders by blocking off the exits to the parking garages of the Rayburn House Office Building and the Hart Senate Office Building . Legal challenges . The first known legal challenge in American history to the involuntary extension of a soldier ' s enlistment contract occurred during the American Civil War , when Private Edward A . Stevens filed suit against the federal government for extending his three - month enlistment . The prosecuting party for the government was Edwin Stanton , Secretary of War . Stevens lost the suit and was confined for " mutinous conduct " for a brief period of time . The first legal challenge to the contemporary stop - loss policy came in August 2004 , with a lawsuit challenged by David Qualls , a National Guard sman in California . Qualls argued the military breached his enlistment contract by involuntarily extending his term of service . However , his arguments were rejected by Judge Royce C . Lamberth and the case was dismissed . Qualls ' case was not appealed . In October 2004 , a " John Doe " lawsuit was filed by an anonymous National Guardsman facing stop - loss , challenging the validity of the law that authorized it . This suit was dismissed at trial by Judge Frank C . Damrell and the court ' s findings were upheld by the Ninth U . S . Circuit Court of Appeals . The Ninth Circuit also rejected another similar appeal in " Santiago v . Rumsfeld " in May , 2005 . Government response . The former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates , as one of his first acts in his position ( he assumed the office December 18 , 2006 ) , penned a memo compelling commanders to " minimize " the stop - lossing of soldiers . The United States Army states that enlisted soldiers facing stop - loss can now voluntarily separate by request , under provision 3 - 12 , but only after they complete an involuntary deployment of twelve to fifteen months and 90 days stabilization time ( time allowed to " out - process " from the military ) can they apply . This refers to an Army policy dated Sept . 5 , 2002 . It allowed enlisted soldiers under stop - loss to voluntarily separate on the first anniversary of their original expiration of service or ETS date ( under twelve - month stop - loss ) ; officers and warrant officers , not retirement eligible , to apply to leave one year from the end of their original service obligation date ; officers and warrant officers without a service obligation to request separation 12 months after they were first affected by stop - loss ; and retirement - eligible soldiers to apply for retirement one year from their original retirement eligibility date ( defined as 20 years active federal service ) or one year from when stop - loss took effect if the soldier was retirement eligible on the effective date of stop - loss . Despite Secretary Gates ' s order , by April 2008 use of stop - loss had increased by 43 % . Soldiers affected by stop - loss were then serving , on average , an extra 6 . 6 months , and sergeants through sergeants first class made up 45 % of these soldiers . From 2002 through April 2008 , 58 , 300 soldiers were affected by stop - loss , or about 1 % of active duty , Reserve , and National Guard troops . Reduction in the use of stop - loss . In March 2009 , Gates ordered a deep reduction in the number of personnel affected by the stop loss policy . " Gates said the goal is to reduce that number by 50 percent by June 2010 and to bring it down to scores or less by March 2011 " In the media . In the 2005 " Witches of Mass Destruction " 23rd episode of American television series " Boston Legal " , Alan Shore represents a client suing the US Military for the loss of her brother , who had to stay in Iraq beyond the time specified in his National Guard service contract due to the " Stop - Loss " program . A film titled " Stop - Loss " , released March 2008 , details the fictional story of a soldier ( played by actor Ryan Phillippe ) who goes absent without leave from the military after being notified he is being " stop - lossed . " September 2008 in the season 2 premier of the Canadian television series " The Border " , three fictional American soldiers desert to Canada by swimming the Niagara River , using " Stop - Loss " as their legal basis for refugee status . In the 2010 episode " Moving the Chains " of the American television series " House " , a patient confesses to Gregory House that he has been served with a " Stop - Loss " order after completing his enlistment service .