Getting out, military retirement, military to civilian transition - Navy Times

Stop-Loss

Presidential authority may suspend any provision of law pertaining to separation and retirement from the military. In other words, the military may legally keep you in uniform past your planned separation or retirement dates in times of national emergency.

Stop-loss implementation authority was delegated to the secretary of defense by executive order on Sept. 14, 2001. It was in turn delegated to the secretaries of the services.

A stop-loss order can affect an entire branch of service or specific military operations. At one time or another in the past few years, members of all services have had their terms of service extended to meet operational requirements, although as of early 2007, only the Army was still using stop-loss, with about 10,000 soldiers affected.

Check with your personnel officer to see if stop-loss may affect you.