Army experiments with raising maximum age for Reserve recruits

[lebkuchen]

"Experiments with"

The experiment will fail, imo.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27871

Battling recruiting and retention shortfalls among its part-time soldiers, the Army is launching a new experimental policy approving the acceptance of not-so-young recruits into the ranks of the Army National Guard and Reserve.

Dubbed a three-year “test,” the new policy will bump up the maximum age for new enlistments from 34 years to 39 years, according to an Army announcement.

The policy applies to both men and women joining the military for the first time. The older recruits will be eligible for the same enlistment bonuses and other incentives as younger volunteers, according to the announcement. Those with prior service experience interested in reserves duty remain under existing rules.

[Rose Siding]

1. Will we all be invited to Goldberg's going away party?

Jonah answered critics with:

snip>
"...As for why my sorry a** isn't in the kill zone, lots of people think this is a searingly pertinent question. No answer I could give -- I'm 35 years old, my family couldn't afford the lost income, I have a baby daughter, my a** is, er, sorry, are a few -- ever seem to suffice."

http://www.juancole.com/2005/02/wolcott-on-goldbergs-language.html

[mcscajun]

2. Aww...too bad Toby Keith is 43...or it is 44?

Ah, well.

[Joey Liberal]

3. 39 is too old

The problem for these "older" enlistees is that they'll have to go through basic training with people that are 17, 18, 19 years old or in their early twenties. The average 39 year old will never make through basic training. And they'll go through hell. This is how far we've sunk with Bush in charge.

[fasttense]

8. I disagree.

I was in better shape as I got older. But then I knew more and more about proper diet and exercise. Some people peak in their teens, some in their twenties, some in their thirties, some in their forties. Let's hear it for late bloomers.

But that said, this is just a sign of how tough recruitment has gotten. Can a draft be far behind?

[lebkuchen]

11. A lot of IRR guys in their 30's, 40's and 50's got a military checkup

before/during their deployment to Iraq and discovered they were at-risk candidates for heart attacks, a la Clinton. Some were finding themselves out of breath in the battlefield, w/chest pains, and so forth due to the extraneous physical pressures in a war zone, as opposed to a US civilian lifestyle, and were sent to the military clinic to learn the news, that they needed heart bypass, soon. The irony is that had they not been called up for IRR, their condition wouldn't have been diagnosed until it was too late because of the lack of medical insurance for or general health neglect of these folks in the US.

[Joey Liberal]

13. Are you a veteran?

I was in better shape as I got older.
======
Do you understand how rigorous basic training is? It's not just the physical aspect. It's the lack of sleep, its the stress monsters (Drill Sergeants) and everything else. It's stressful. I'm not saying its impossible. We had a guy that was 35 years old when I went through. But the Drill Sergeants were all over him, with no mercy, just for being 35 years old. And fat guys caught hell as well.

[Ready4Change]

4. In the closing days of WWII

US troops noted that the german forces they faced were largely composed of old men and young boys. This is a sign of a nation in stress.

We've clearly reached the limits of our all-volunteer, middle aged group, and the growing unpopularity of this war is eroding even that base. We have 3 options. Expand the acceptable age range; reduce our military involvement, or abandon the all-volunteer concept and reinstate the draft.

Here, we are choosing the first option.

[lebkuchen]

12. Good point

I have a German "relative" who is 95 today, a German WWII paratrooper who had been grazed by a British bullet, I believe in Cyprus.

[0007]

17. Perhaps we should start looking at the boy scout troops

while checking out the oldies.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Harder to brainwash a 35 year old than an 18 year old.

That's why it doesn't work. Those with life experience are more hard-wired.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. As the Marines learned in the latter days of Viet Nam.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. The open question is whether it was "learned" or not.

It may fall victim to generational memory.

[Coastie for Truth]

9. I was referring to the Commandant

who suggested that married marines (generally) and marines over about 22 years old were "too old" to be good Marine infantry fighters.

[NVMojo]

10. in the early 50s, my grandma signed my dad up for the Army

and he was only 16, headed for Korea. He was in alot of trouble with juvenile authorities so it seemed a better option. He grew up fast and successful in the Infantry, I must admit. Better killing for the USA than as an Irish hood on the streets of Chicago???

[leanin_green]

14. Well, that's one way to shrink the burgeoning baby boomers!

Start drafting us older, more experienced boomers into the next neo-con adventure. I'm going on forty-seven with prior service experience as a Navy Hospital Corpsman who served with the Marines, think they'd want my experience? I keep waiting for that letter from the military after they reinstitute the draft.

[lebkuchen]

18. I know that medical and religious MOSs are needed

Good luck

[Mari333]

15. hah!! My 38 yr old staunch republican brother

who thinks Bush is god, cant balk anymore..time to get his ass into the recruiting office asap..betcha he balks even more
ahhh chickenhawks. BAWWK BAWKKK BAWWWK

[Dr Fate]

16. They will sabotage the economy b/f they bring back a draft.

n/t