US Army raises maximum enlistment age to 40

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=5975

WASHINGTON, Jan 18, 2006 (PG) - The US Army said Wednesday it has raised its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 40 years old and is doubling maximum signing up bonuses to 40,000 dollars.

The measures are the latest in a series of steps the army has taken over the past year to offset a slump in recruiting as it faces ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The army failed to hit its recruiting goal of 80,000 new recruits in fiscal 2005. Recruiting figures have since improved but the the war in Iraq has made it difficult to meet the demand for fresh soldiers.

"Raising the maximum age for active army non-prior service enlistment expands the recruiting pool, provides motivated individuals an opportunity to serve, and strengthens the readiness of army units," the service said.

[sasha031]

1. why don't they jusy call back the WWI and WWII vets

[babylonsister]

2. That's next. nt

[melody]

4. And then they start on the elementary schools n/t

[benburch]

3. Well, well, well!

OK, Freepers! Those who have been saying how you'd GO and all, if you were not too OLD already? Now is your chance, sweethearts!

http://usmilitary.about.com/library/pdf/enlistment.pdf <--- Here's your form!

[Hardrada]

42. Ann Coulter is well over 40 now. Can't they provide a loophole

or foxhole for her??

[MidwestTransplant]

5. Awesome. Let the Freepers know. I am sure they will enlist en mass

[brentspeak]

16. I'd like to know what the College Republicans' excuse is

for not enlisting. Probably 98% of them stay far away from military service.

[Hardrada]

43. I have a repuke nephew in ROTC but he sure as hell

isn't planning on going anywhere.

[DinahMoeHum]

6. The Army is THAT desperate???? LMAO !!

How much do y'all want to bet that the next move by Rummy and his Pentagon Whiz Kids will be taking certain personnel of the Air Force and the Navy and turning THEM into ass-in-the-sand soldiers. I understand that the Navy and the Air Force have fewer problems recruiting.

:evilfrown:

[benburch]

7. They have already done this to an extent.

I don't know the details, but I know that some Navy personnel have been casualties in Iraq.

[DinahMoeHum]

20. You're not referring to the "Navy Hospital Corpsmen", are you?

That's a given, since they're attached to Marine units.

Navy SEALs don't count, either.

:evilfrown:

[benburch]

21. I recall these were like Shore Patrol guys.

Security types.

[DinahMoeHum]

23. IOW, the scheme would be to replace Army support personnel

(the rear-echelon personnel) with Navy and Air Force ones who work in the same MOSs in their services??

Hmmmmmm.

:evilfrown:

[BrotherBuzz]

39. NOT real echelon by a long shot...

Air Force security forces are traditionally associated with base defense but are now providing security for convoys in Iraq.

[tabasco]

109. Blue to green program - tried this already.

This was a voluntary program (with coercion no doubt) to get troops from the USAF and USN into the Army.

Rumsfeld and his idiot appointees expected 70,000 to sign up.

Last I checked they had 1500 and were scrapping the program.

They are getting truly desperate. 40-year old recruits.

With Bush destroying our economy, they might get a lot of unemployed people to sign up.

It is funny how those patriotic, flag-waving freepers ("these colors don't run") aren't running down to the recruiters to sign up for combat duty, like John Kerry did in Vietnam. I suppose they all have to stay here and fight the culture wars with Rush the dope addict.

[Ezlivin]

8. Laid off? Too old to find work? Guess again! You can serve our

military in such hot spots as Iraq, Iran and (coming soon!) North Korea.

Why sit around collecting unemployment or fruitlessly searching the want ads for jobs you know have already been outsourced?

You can be a hero instead.

Note: You may want to bring your own body armor. Living is the key to the benefits program.

[raccoon]

24. You should be in PR! nt

[primavera]

85. ROTFL!

Thanks, I needed a good chuckle! :hi:

[Tight_rope]

96. LMBAO...You hit the nail on the head!

[the other one]

9. Cool.

Career change time!

[donco6]

10. Darn it! I'm still too old.

Oh well.

[uppityperson]

38. Dang, me too. Could've paid off the mortgage and bills with that money.

Darn it all. Maybe they'll raise it to 55 next yr and I can join then. USA USA USA USA USA USA!!!!!!!11

[cmd]

11. By this time next year, I should be young enough to join

I wonder if I will be able to collect Medicare and Army pay at the same time.

[saigon68]

12. the freepers are COWARDS

They will let some "minority man" go in their place

[sarcasmo]

13. Looks like at 37 I am again good to go for the call back.

Time to bust out my drag queen outfit, the wife will just love it when my alter ego answers the door.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

35. Is that the one where you play Marine Reagan?

[sarcasmo]

82. Actually it's just Kelly nothing over the top except she is a

Dominatrix, LMFAO. I could just see the look at the recruiters office now.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

14. AJC - reports maximum age has been raised from 35 to 42

Read this in yesterdays Atlanta Journal-Constitution on page A6. Re-enlistment bonus would increase form $60 k to $90 k.

Even more freepers can support their president now by signing up to fight terrorist. Tell them to go to https://secure.military.com/leads/Recruiting/RecruitingLeadForm1.jsp?ESRC=cbggl_join2.kw&GCID=S15121x002

[phantom power]

15. I'm curious about issues like basic training.

I'm reasonably healthy, but when it comes to physical adaptability, 37 is very different than 20. Based on what I've heard about basic training, it would send a lot of people like me to the chiropractor. Or the hospital.

[LynnTheDem]

17. Nah, more likely you'd go where the 18-25 year old troops are going...

The morgue. Rather ya didn't do that.

Now freepers I have no problems whatsoever with them going 6 feet under for their lying MFing bush-god.

[PatGund]

61. Bear this in mind.....

There's a lot of people in the military who *don't* approve of what the current administration is doing.

A friend of mine last year joined the Army reserve at the age of 39, and reported to basic a week after her 40th birthday. She made it though, and due to her education, (BA, MA, and her Ph.D. in theology undergoing thesis review right now), went in as a Spec4. (the cut off age at that time for OCS was 35, it is now 40, so she's debating going to OCS now.) And with the increase in age for the regular Army, she can go green-to-gold from the reserves if she wants.

And she is *strongly* anti-war, and loathes the current administration with a passion. Why did she join? Partly to pay off her student loans, and partly because she felt the best way to support the troops was to become one. She jokes the added benefit of being able to look at the NeoCons and Young Repubs she knows and go "I joined, what's your excuse??" to watch them squirm is also a plus.

Matter of fact, she keeps recruiter cards on her person for just that reason - to be give to the "rah rah support Bush" types. :-)

[LynnTheDem]

66. I know...I live on Fort Hood.

Husband's entire unit call bush the anti-Christ.

[PatGund]

79. (chuckle)

Why does that not surprise me??

When I was stateside in San Diego, many of the active duty sailors and marines I know flat out did not like Bush at all. And now that I'm here in Qatar, the personnel I talk to coming though here, (I don't work on base but have friends that do and serve as a contact point for some military personnel), flat out hate him even more.

[LynnTheDem]

86. If you ignore the 15% officer corps and deal with the 85% US military,

the enlisted folk, they are apx 1/3 republican to 2/3rds Dem-Indy.

2 to 1 NON-republicans to republicans.

Officers, the 15% of the US military, are apx 6 rethugs to every Dem-Indy.

So taking the entire US military, there are FAR more Dems & Indys than there are rethugs. But the "MSM" won't tell Americans that, of course.

[tabasco]

110. Is the officer data from a poll or something?

I know a lot of officers who hate Bush and the republicans. I can't make generalizations from my experience, but 6 to 1 seems high. I even know an officer you see on teevee quite a bit, he is a liberal from the evil liberal Taxachusssets!!

Before Bush came in, I would have guessed the non-officer force as : 30% repukes, 20% liberal, 60% don't know or give a damn.

Now I would say it is closer to : 25% repukes, 40% liberal, 35% don't give a damn.

IMO, Bush has certainly turned the military against the republicans.

The problem for the future is how Bush has forced honest generals to retire and placed yes-men in the top jobs. It will be a task for a future Democratic administration to clean house of all the generals who are loyal to a party rather than to the Nation.

[LynnTheDem]

117. Partly from living on US military bases the past 15 years.

Partly from various studies & polls done;

"9 out of 10 of the people I talk to, it wouldn't matter who ran against Bush - they'd vote for them," said a US soldier in the southern city of Najaf, seeking out a reporter to make his views known. "People are so fed up with Iraq, and fed up with Bush."

A Military Times survey last December of 933 subscribers, about 30 percent of whom had deployed for the Iraq war, found that 56 percent considered themselves Republican - about the same percentage who approved of Bush's handling of Iraq. Half of those responding were officers, who as a group tend to be more conservative than their enlisted counterparts.

Among officers, who represent roughly 15 percent of today's 1.4 million active duty military personnel, there are about eight Republicans for every Democrat, according to a 1999 survey by Duke University political scientist Peter Feaver.

Enlisted personnel, however - a disproportionate number of whom are minorities, a population that tends to lean Democratic - are more evenly split. Professor Feaver estimates that about one third of enlisted troops are Republicans, one third Democrats, and the rest independents, with the latter group growing.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0921/p02s02-usmi.html

The silver lining with bush...more enlisted troops (and even officers) are now Indy or Dems. Of course that ain't much comfort to all the dead.

[tatertop]

26. That is a good point

No way could I run a mile or do 50 push ups.
How many 40 year-old guys could?

[phantom power]

27. Not many, if you try throwing it all at them in 8 weeks.

[tatertop]

28. I am having a heart attack just thinking about it

[trogdor]

32. Army Field Manual 21-20 covers physical training and standards.

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=usmilitary&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gannon.edu%2Fresource%2Fother%2Forg%2Frotc%2Fmanuals%2Ffm21_20.pdf

According to the source, this file requires a username (armystudyguide) and password (pubs) to access, although I was able to pull it right into my Adobe reader.

These are the minimum scores for a 42 year old. You get two minutes to finish the pushup and situp events.

Male
Pushups: 30
Situps: 32
2 mile run: 18:42

Female
Pushups: 12
Situps: 32
2 mile run: 23:42

I think you get a little leeway to get out of Basic Training, but you have to meet these standards at the conclusion of Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Still, it's a lot harder for a 40 year old to train up to even these relaxed standards than it is for a teenager, who will still run rings around you.

Also, I've seen drill sergeants as young as 22. Can you take orders from someone young enough to be your son or daughter?

[sarge43]

33. A former recruit wrangler here

Not only the physical standards, it'll be a problem for the older types to put up with the mind games. A young person, fresh out of high school, can be bs'd; an person in his/her mid-thirties not so much. I trained guard personnel who tended to be older than the regular recruits, one of them was a grandmother; generally speaking, they caught on to the game fairly early on. About the third week, grandmother asked Team Leader and myself, "This is all a game, isn't it?" "Pretty much, Airman."

[anarch]

83. yeah, I'm kinda picturing scenes from the movie "Stripes" here

A whole lot harder to indoctrinate people with entrenched opinions.

[sarge43]

87. Never saw that one

It's also the general mind set of the age groups. A young person (late teens) is still influenced by peer pressure; s/he still has a certain need for direction, still wants to belong to a group.

And, of course, as a person matures s/he tends to move away from this and become more psychologically independent.

[anarch]

89. "Stripes", 1981, starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis

John Candy was in it too.

Here's some dialog from an early scene at Boot Camp:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sergeant Hulka: Okay, Mr. Push-ups, let's hear your story.

John Winger(Bill Murray): Chicks dig me, because I rarely wear underwear and when I do it's usually something unusual. But now I know why I have always lost women to guys like you. I mean, it's not just the uniform. It's the stories that you tell. So much fun and imagination.



John Winger: Lee Harvey, you are a madman. When you stole that cow, and your friend tried to make it with the cow. I want to party with you, cowboy. If the two of us together, forget it. I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I'm gonna volunteer my leadership to this platoon. An army without leaders is like a foot without a big toe. And Sergeant Hulka is always gonna be here to be that big toe for us. I think that we owe a big round of applause to our newest, bestest buddy, and big toe... Sergeant Hulka.



Sergeant Hulka: Well, okay, hotshot. We're gonna see what kind of soldier you are.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[sarge43]

93. OK, you convinced me.

Besides I adore Murray.

[AnneD]

18. And if you are in a critical occupation area...

like Doc or Nurse-it is higher. "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise."

[goforit]

19. Well....why stop there..recruit the 70 and 80 yr olds!!!Poppy's generation

Quite frankly I don't think they know what
real blood looks like.

[Bluzmann57]

40. Well I suspect that a lot of 70 and 80 year olds do know what real blood

looks like. After all, a number of these older gentlemen gladly rallied 'round their flag when their country called them for WW2 as well as Korea. My dad and 2 uncles among them.

[raccoon]

70. Yes, and FDR's sons all enlisted.

The President's sons enlisted in the military to help with the war effort. What a novel idea! Those were the days (in that one respect, anyway :-) ).

[0007]

22. Yes Sir!

Reporting for duty Sir!

[rodeodance]

25. canes to be issued with uniforms soon.

[rainbow4321]

29. Hmmm...maybe this recruitment invite to an 87 yr old wasn't a mistake

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011406dnmetgranny.218cb937.html


She hasn't done a pushup in ages. But that didn't keep Uncle Sam from offering Lillye England up to $20,000 to join the Army. The hitch: She's 87.

Mrs. England, a west Oak Cliff grandmother, received a personalized invitation from the U.S. Army Recruiting Command this week to learn more about a career as a soldier.

"They want me to join the Army, how about that?" Mrs. England said. "You suppose that could be a mistake?"

But given her hearing aid and osteoarthritis, not to mention her age, she wouldn't be eligible to enlist. Beginning next week, the Army is raising its maximum age for enlistees from 34 to 40.

[daleo]

30. If they raise it to 50, they can go after late baby-boomers

This doesn't seem like a healthy sign.

[Hardrada]

45. They have to raise it to 60 to get the hippies

and 70+ to get the beatniks!! Not that they won't try.

[yorkiemommie1]

48. just like we said way back then...

'HELL NO! We won't go!!'

[Hardrada]

50. Or 1,2,3,4 we don't need your effing War!!!

[yorkiemommie1]

56. exactly

we might be wearing bifocals now, but we still know bullshit when we smell it!

[Hardrada]

58. Even as much as I forget as (if I do) as I move along

I will still know far, far more than those swine mismanaging the U.S. And I still have my SDS button too!

[yorkiemommie1]

94. whoa! SDS! some of my best friends were in SDS!

what memories!

[Hardrada]

100. I had some good comrades. I wonder where they

all are now. I tried once on DU to get some kind of SDS reunion going but only got a few responses and a few people thinking I might be the FBI or something. I might try again since I feel that when the student movements vanished so did any real hope of changing the society for the better. It meant then that 99% of students would be conservative or indifferent instead of the 85% or so in the Sixties. These are figures I arrived at from my own experience.

[peacebuzzard]

107. 5,6,7,open up the pearly gates

ain't no time to wonder why,
whoopee we're all gonna die!

http://www.well.com/~cjfish/game.htm#cheer



:hippie: (Country Joe and the Fish)

[Roland99]

73. Step Right Up! The Magical Mystery Tour!

Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour, step right this way.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up GOT AN INVITATION, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up TO MAKE A RESERVATION, roll up for the mystery tour.
The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away,
Waiting to take you away.

Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up SATISFACTION GUARANTEED, roll up for the mystery tour.
The magical mystery tour is hoping to take you away,
Hoping to take you away.

A mystery trip.

The magical mystery tour.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up GOT AN INVITATION, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up TO MAKE A RESERVATION, roll up for the mystery tour.
The magical mystery tour is coming to take you away,
Coming to take you away.
The magical mystery tour is dying to take you away,
Dying to take you away, take you away.

[superconnected]

31. Well, I can join now, but the answer is still NO.

[katamaran]

34. So what happens if someone is drafted and can't pass the tests?

So what happens if someone is drafted and can't pass the tests? I am not in great shape, but if I actually wanted to, could get into it winthin a few months. A recruiter would probably look at me and say I could easily get in shape. So what if a draft was reinstated, and I was called up and could not pass the physical tests? If after six weeks of training, I just can't make the minimum requirements? What if I collapse and just can't go any further during a run? Do they make you go through basic again or just flunk you out?

/if they draft women aged 28, I'm gonna be lazy as hell.

[snowbear]

36. They'll take em anyway....

They don't care anymore -- :shrug:

[captain disgruntled]

69. It's been a long time since I went to boot camp...

...but I did go back through re-processing (makes me sound like Velveeta) in about '83, to enlist in the reserves--recruits are supposed to be able to pass minimal strength requirements before enlistment. My recollection was you had to squat, like, 40 pounds or something.
They didn't check running ability at all before shipping you out. There was also a physical exam :rofl: before boot camp, which of course caught any joint damage or cardiac conditions that would be exacerbated by boot camp:sarcasm:. Shit, we had probably 90% 18-20-year-olds, and we still lost recruits to torn knee ligaments, suicide attempts, and of course the foot and ankle damage resulting when you make people run incessantly on asphalt while wearing COMBAT BOOTS WITH LEATHER SOLES, which they were still issuing a few unlucky women at the time (they were apparently relics of the Viet Nam, uh, <i>Conflict</i>, made for nurses who primarily stood in surgery).
To my shock, I think the fitness requirements given above may actually be within my capability--being able to subsist on 5 1/2 hours of sleep a night and sleeping on the equivalent of squashed cereal boxes?? Nuh-uh.
I think you got at least two tries at graduation--people who were unusually flabby just got extra abuse and push-ups, and the food is so egregious (though I'm certain that's changed, now that it's all provided by Sodexho/Marriott:sarcasm:) that even the most dedicated glutton couldn't help but lose weight. We did have recruits who missed training because of illness or injury, and they were reassigned to a different company to start over again...;(

[sarge43]

80. Cynical answer

Draft: Depends upon what color you are, your economic standing in the community, how much heat the recruiting district is getting from the headshed about enlistment stats, and, of course, pure blind luck.

If you don't want to go the gay/lesbian route, best bet for beating the draft: Go at least 20 pounds over your weight limit and stay there. Unless the bad guys are marching up main street, unlikely the weight requirement will be handwaved. Another tried and true, day of the physical take something that jacks up your blood pressure and heart rate.

Re basic: If you collapse because of, say, heat exhaustion, you may get 24 hour bed rest and back on the streets. If you collapse because of a heart attack, you'll probably be discharged.

[HockeyMom]

37. Can SENIORS be far behind?

Oh, wait. They are ALREADY recalling 70 year old doctors.

Eliminate Social Security, Pensions, etc., etc. JOIN THE MILITARY!!!!!

:rofl:

[Hardrada]

46. Back to the wars, Hawkeye and BJ!!

And Hot Lips too.

[PassingFair]

41. Forty Thousand Dollars is a LOT of Money...

Enough to tempt MANY who are in thrall to the banks and mortgage companies.
Beginning to sound like the guaranteed money for suicide bombers.
Makes me wanna cry.
Bushco has so much money, it can buy and sell LIVES.

[VirginiaDem]

44. WOO HOO! I'm in by a nose!

Now I just gotta hobble my early arthritic ass down to the recruiting center before I turn 41. Wish me luck!

[VirginiaDem]

47. The Army has a lot of positions to fill that don't

require people to be particularly physically fit. Desk jobs, intelligence, etc. Grabbing a bunch of 37-year-olds and putting them in desks gives them a lot of flexibility.

[sarge43]

81. Not really

Thanks to Rummy et al, many of those jobs have been farmed out to civilians.

Also it limits flexibility because X% of the warm bodies are in effect on permanent restricted duty. Now if less than 5% are, then that's doable; more and there's major headaches.

Second, the quickest way to permanently lock morale in the latrine is for the word to get that anyone over, say, 35 regardless of MOS won't be assigned to the overseas hellholes. In the hellholes, you do any and every job that needs doing.

It's very important that the troops perceive that "everybody jumps". It's not so, but no good will be done by rubbing their noses in it.

[VirginiaDem]

103. Thanks for the correction.

I've talked with a few other folks today in the service and they've told me similar things.

[Hardrada]

49. In WWI the French Army lowered the "Age of Consent"

to 15. That might be their next step. I'm surprised there's not a Bush version of the Hitler Jugend!

[TheBaldyMan]

51. anyone want to join up?

http://www.goarmy.com

get an extra $400 per month with active service within an infantry unit

[Up2Late]

52. Damn, they keep raising it, but I'm STILL to OLD!

It went to 38 when I was 40, now 40 when I'm 42, and STILL, they won't lower the age to apply for the FBI and other non-combat Law Enforcement jobs I could do (still 34 is the cut off).

[BattyDem]

53. FORTY - too old for the NFL ... but the US Army will take you!

:eyes:

[AndyTiedye]

54. Do You Feel a Draft in the Air?

[leesa]

55. Come on all you Bush supporters. Where are you?

[yorkiemommie1]

57. they're cowards

just like their leaders who had 'other priorities'.

[LeftistGorilla]

59. how sad....

[Hardrada]

60. The twins still aren't stepping forward

to do their bit. Why couldn't there be a platoon made up entirely of Bushes out there saving our freedoms right around Tikrit or Fallujah?

[barb162]

65. The twins still aren't stepping forward and they never will

just like their daddy

[PatGund]

62. You know......

If the Air Force or AF Reserve did likewise, I'd consider joining.

Right now, the cut off ages though are 28 and 35, and I'm about 5 weeks from my 40th.

[f-bush]

63. Do I feel a "draft" in the air?

[barb162]

64. So many soldiers are getting killed and injured....

I wonder how long it will be before they raise the age again

[VLC98]

67. I keep hearing the US Army is the best in the world.

I wonder if China lets 40 year olds enlist? Anyone?

[Hubert Flottz]

68. Sounds like the Confederate Army.

Or the Nazis...

The Fall of Berlin, 1945

snip>

The radio announced that Hitler had come out of his safe bomb-proof bunker to talk with the fourteen to sixteen year old boys who had 'volunteered' for the 'honor' to be accepted into the SS and to die for their Fuhrer in the defense of Berlin. What a cruel lie! These boys did not volunteer, but had no choice, because boys who were found hiding were hanged as traitors by the SS as a warning that, 'he who was not brave enough to fight had to die.' When trees were not available, people were strung up on lamp posts. They were hanging everywhere, military and civilian, men and women, ordinary citizens who had been executed by a small group of fanatics. It appeared that the Nazis did not want the people to survive because a lost war, by their rationale, was obviously the fault of all of us. We had not sacrificed enough and therefore, we had forfeited our right to live, as only the government was without guilt. The Volkssturm was called up again, and this time, all boys age thirteen and up, had to report as our army was reduced now to little more than children filling the ranks as soldiers." MORE...

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/berlin.htm

Maybe Gawd will punish America for the neocon's SINS against humanity, just like the Germans were finally punished for their sins against humanity.

The Bible does not say..."Thou shalt not kill unless, it's for something that EXXON needs."

[raccoon]

74. You took the words out of my mouth, it does sound like

the Confederate Army. After a while, they were taking old men and little boys.

If you had a white male ancestor who lived in the Confederate States during the Civil War, chances are very good he was in the Confederate Army. If he could breathe and walk, that was enough.

[Roland99]

71. Hey! I'm eligible for another 21 months now!

Where do I sign?


:sarcasm:

[stepnw1f]

72. Look How Desperate Bush Made the Military

And they talk about Iran?

[raccoon]

75. I'm waiting for the US army to recruit foreigners, even if

they don't speak English. They could have Spanish-speaking companies of recruits from Mexico and Central America.

I'm not saying I'd be in favor of this; by no means. But I'm surprised the Junta isn't doing it.

[sarge43]

78. Foreign nationalists

They can enlist if they have permanent resistency permission, but they can't reenlist without citizenship. And they can't hold a line commission.

However, you're absolutely right. All this can be handwaved.

[Hardrada]

98. We have mercenaries already but they are paid a lot.

Maybe they are seeking cut-rate mercenaries.

[Hardrada]

99. If they were guaranteed to fuck Paris Hilton, Young Repubs

might volunteer to go. I don't know. Just an idea.

[Zech Marquis]

76. if the Air Force had done this

I'd consider it, but the Army? Hell NO! Not even for OCS!

[speedingbullet]

77. 40 is the new 30

I really don't think 40 is as "old" as it used to be. Lots of people are taking better care of themselves. It would be interesting to see how older people hold up through basic training. At 47 I can still still do a lot of things as well as I could in my 30's, I just can't do them as often. Don't seem to recover as quickly anymore.

[Dulcinea]

84. Middle-aged people & juvenile delinquents.

Those are the new targets.

A guy I know, who was in trouble with the law for most of his youth, was ordered by a judge to join the Army or go to jail. He chose the Army.

I'm sure we'll see a lot more of that. Maybe they'll release nonviolent drug offenders into the military.

[rocktivity]

88. "I've been in the Army and I've been in jail. Jail was nicer."

--Ice T

:headbang:
rocknation

[AKPacker]

91. May be funny to some but

I retired from the Army in 1996. I am 48 years old and really do not want to be reactivated. The more desperate the services get, the more chance that I will be recalled for a bogus war that never should have been fought!

[NYC]

105. Are you currently considered

too old to be reactivated? (I hope so.)

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[AKPacker]

108. No 48 is not too old

and thanks for the welcome!

[hadrons]

113. I got my fingers crossed for you AKPacker ....

you shouldn't have to be worried about this at this point in your life

[AKPacker]

115. I totally agree.

Every time I hear news about a shortage of medical personnel, my heart skips a beat!

[sarge43]

90. Jail vs the Army

That went on a lot during the latter part of the Nam war - equating military service with punishment.

[Dulcinea]

111. This was in the mid-1980s.

I don't doubt that it happened a lot during Vietnam, though.

[sarge43]

116. It did - a lot. n/t

[Tight_rope]

92. ROTFLMBAO.....If you folks don't start signing up....the draft is next!

[alfredo]

95. 40 years old is not "fresh."

I wonder if the draft age will follow.

[Tight_rope]

97. You know I was thinking about joining the YMCA this year.

The price keeps going up every year and I keep putting it off. It's up to $38.00 a month this year, direct withdrawal (with a $99.00 non-refundable application fee).

I'm 35 years old and I promised myself that I would look more fit at 40 years old then at 30 years old. So I was thinking about getting started.

I have flat feet so I know I won't pass boot-camp. But I can always use this opportunity as a free 8 week workout regiment. :patriot:

[kat21]

101. Great - with their current stop-loss policy -

maybe these soldiers will get out in time to get social security.

[katty]

102. hope they don't call my 70 yr old Dad!

[Dan]

104. I don't understand...

Where are all these people that support Bush?

[sarge43]

106. They just don't want to die supporting him

'sides it's a thin paycheck.

[AgadorSparticus]

112. wow, wonder how long before it goes to 50? heck, why stop there...

60 is the new 40, isn't it? out. of. control.

[VegasWolf]

114. New opportunity for those Bush outsourced individuals to find

gainful employment.

:sarcasm: