| Nearly destitute of food, clothing, and ammunition, with enlistments expiring and men abandoning what looked like a lost cause, the Continental army was about to fade away. |
| With enlistments down, re-enlistments falling off and with a need for more troops in Iraq, I think a draft is in order. |
| The stop-loss order allows the military services to retain individuals on active duty beyond their date their enlistments expire. |
| That system is also creaking to a halt, with plunging enlistments and retentions. |
| The army had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 men fit for duty, and would be reduced to 1,400 after enlistments expired at the end of the year. |
| Underemployed drill sergeants reassigned from understocked basic training bases could not be replaced quickly with comparable talent if enlistments pick up later. |
