Among the best of stories to report on the Obama Administration is the effort that has been made to stop the regrettable “Stop Loss” practices of the Bush Administration.  In addition to nearly halving the number of members serving under Stop Loss authority from some 16,000 in 2005 and 13,000 earlier this year to about 9,600 today, and to announcing that the June 2010 will mark the final stop loss deployments, this week saw the DoD begin to compensate Service members forced to involuntarily serve beyond their contracts. 

The new compensation policy allows service members who were “Stop Lossed” – including some 137,000 Army soldiers -- to collect $500 for every month or partial month they served after their service contract ended.  Information on where current and honorably discharged Service Members (and the families of deceased service members who were stop lossed) can find additional information on claiming this compensation can be found here.