10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY

You May Find It Difficult To Leave The Military

By Louis and Marti Hiken

The stop-loss policy, or back door draft, has forced about 15,000 soldiers to stay beyond their separation date. Some soldiers have been duped into the "Try One" program. When they're on their way out, recruiters say, 'Sign up for just one more year and go to college. If you don't like it -- well it's only a year.'

Sergeant Emiliano Santiago joined the "Try One" program. He was stop-lossed and his current discharge date is 2031.

About Louis and Marti Hiken

Louis Hiken has represented GIs in courts-martial, administrative discharge hearings, and federal court proceedings for the last thirty years. He has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Military Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild since the 1970s. He is currently a supervising attorney with the California Appellate Project, assisting in the defense of death penalty cases pending before the California Supreme Court.

Marti Hiken, a civilian military counselor and legal worker, is currently co-chair of the Military Law Task Force. Previously, she was the associate director at the Institute for Public Accuracy. She was also the director of the NLG Prison Law Project and chaired the NLG Native American Committee in the early 1970s.

The Military Law Task Force sued the Department of Defense over its stop-loss policy, also known as the back door draft. Stop loss, which forces soldiers to stay in the military past their enlistment date - sometimes for years - has been one of the government's ways to keep troops in Iraq.