Courtesy Photo Pfc. Christopher Pfeiffer

Pfeiffer's officers notified him last week that he might be discharged from the Army. They said he failed to return to his unit after coming home over the summer on authorized leave to take care of his sick wife and newborn daughter. Pfeiffer's family said he did everything he could to contact his chain of command and either further extend his leave or make travel arrangements back to Afghanistan.

Early this week, Army officials arranged to send Pfeiffer back to Fort Richardson, Alaska, where his fate will be decided.

Pfeiffer -- along with another soldier to escort him home -- left Bagram, Afghanistan, to fly to Kuwait, then Germany, and then on to Alaska, said his mother-in-law, Theresa Mwimbwa.

But when the two soldiers tried to board a plane to Germany on Tuesday morning Eastern Standard Time, they were told they couldn't go any farther. Pfeiffer's unit never filed a 1610 form, which authorizes temporary duty travel arrangements for Department of Defense personnel, Pfeiffer told Mwimbwa.

"Once again this holding area in Kuwait is a place of imprisonment," Mwimbwa wrote in an e-mail to U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett's office, which has been helping the family since their problems with Pfeiffer's unit started over the summer.

Pfeiffer and his escort were finally cleared on Wednesday to leave Kuwait. Mwimbwa said she was unsure when the two soldiers would arrive in Alaska, but she said before the delay they were supposed to arrive in Fort Richardson on Friday.

Pfeiffer, 20, of Westminster, was first stuck at the Kuwait airport from Sept. 14 until Nov. 3, trying to board a plane to Afghanistan. He was trying to rejoin his unit but was continually scratched from the passenger list, his family said.

On Nov. 3, a soldier in his unit brought him to the military police and escorted him to Bagram, where he waited until earlier this week for the Army to either return him to his unit or send him home.

Pfeiffer is preparing to file a complaint with an Army inspector general regarding the way his chain of command treated him once he got back to the Middle East, as well as asking for pay and insurance coverage he said he was denied. The Army informed Pfeiffer they intended to give him an involuntary separation, though Pfeiffer may protest that decision when he returns to the United States.