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The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

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Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:33 PM
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Pentagon Announces New "Deploy Or Be Removed" Policy Affecting 300K Service Members
The Pentagon on Wednesday announced a new “deploy or be removed” policy that could affect up to nearly 300,000 service members who have been non-deployable for the past 12 months.

“This new policy is a 12-month deploy or be removed policy,” Robert Wilkie, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel and readiness on Wednesday.

The move comes after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ memo last year stressing the need to ensure that “everyone who comes into the service and everyone who stays in the service is world-wide deployable.”

The plan was first revealed by The Military Times.

According to various estimates, between 11 to 14 percent -- or well over 200,000 service members -- of the 2.1 million personnel serving on active duty, in the reserves or National Guard are currently non-deployable on any given day, hindering military readiness.

The new policy will have exceptions such as pregnancy while medical boards will continue to be able to grant exceptions for wounded personnel.