WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military will end a controversial practice in which soldiers are kept on duty after their enlistment ends and will pay soldiers who were previously retained under the "stop loss" program an extra $500 per month starting this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today.



Gates said that 13,200 soldiers are currently in the stop-loss program. He said they'd get special compensation pay retroactive to Oct. 1, 2008, the date Congress made it available.The extra compensation for soldiers was part of legislation initiated by U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton of Copley Township, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. Gates said the Army will instead adopt incentives to encourage soldiers to voluntarily extend enlistment.

"Our goal is to cut the number of those stop-lossed by 50 percent by June 2010 and to eliminate regular use of stop-loss across the entire Army by March 2011," Gates said at a news conference. "We will retain the authority to use stop-loss under extraordinary circumstances."

Sutton said she's "pleased that Secretary Gates has indicated the intention to phase out stop loss, which has placed a toll on so many of our brave service men and women and their families."

"However, it is important that we properly compensate all of the 160,000 soldiers that have been affected by stop loss since 2001 and I will continue to fight to accomplish that goal," Sutton said in a press release.