Military

‘Deploy or get out’ policy may not have forced out any troops at all

Defense officials say no service members have been forced out of the ranks under the Pentagon’s new “deploy or get out” policy put in place last fall, despite comments from the acting defense secretary suggesting tens of thousands of service members were removed from the force in recent months.

Last week, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, acting secretary Patrick Shanahan said that his department has “roughly 21,000 fewer non-deployable service members” since last summer thanks to the policy, which officially went into effect on Oct. 1, 2018.

Under a policy imposed last year by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — part of his effort to make the force more “lethal” — troops who are unable to meet deployment standards for 12 months are expected to either get a waiver justifying their status or face separation from the force.