Army Raises Enlistment Age for Reservists to 39

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7962861

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army, stung by recruiting shortfalls caused by the Iraq war, has raised the maximum age for new recruits for the part-time Army Reserve and National Guard by five years to 39, officials said on Monday.

The Army said the move, a three-year experiment, will add about 22 million people to the pool of those eligible to serve, from about 60 million now. Physical standards will not be relaxed for older recruits, who the Army said were valued for their maturity and patriotism.

The Pentagon has relied heavily on part-time Army Reserve and Army National Guard soldiers summoned from civilian life to maintain troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. Roughly 45 percent of U.S. troops currently deployed for those wars are reservists.

At home, the all-volunteer Army has labored to coax potential recruits to volunteer for the Guard and Reserve as well as for active-duty, and to persuade current soldiers to re-enlist when their volunteer commitment ends.

<snip>

The Army National Guard missed its recruiting goal for the 2004 fiscal year and trails its year-to-date 2005 targets. The Army Reserve missed January and February goals and is lagging its target for 2005. The regular Army missed its target for February and trails its annual goal.

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Of course, the worrisome thing is that if they are preparing for the Draft, that means LIHOP #2 is all ready to go.

my hubby is now eligible for the draft. And LIHOP...get ready for summer fun, probably before school is out. Maybe Memorial Day when everyone is home for the holiday...or Easter Sunday.

It's things like this that make me almost glad that my brother is deaf -- he'd now be eligible as well if they use these guides for a draft.

needed: the leap into pure emotionalism, and disengagement of ordinary thought processes.

Too bad so many people will refuse to wake up until it's far past helpful!

Just wish I was somewhere else to ride out the storm.

People who know me laugh in my face when I tell them I'm going to get a weapon. But I think I really need to. Not to defend myself against regular folks, but for the coming times.

:shrug: no clue, what does it stand for?

vs MIHOP, which is Make it Happen On Purpose".

For example, the 9/11 attacks are considered "LIHOP" by many and "MIHOP" by some, meaning that the bush administration was aware of the plans and allowed them to happen, or that the admin actually planned and carried out the attacks.

on edit: So folks here are implying that we need another 9/11-type event for the administration to be able to get suport for a draft...

thankyou very much!

n/t

... his rationale: We don't have enough "young" people to fight all the wars * is getting us into.

I've been encouraging him to go to Canada.

soon they will be trying to enlist the elderly...

of reducing the rate of drain on Social Security.

Assuming, of course, we can get them to ride in unarmored golf carts when they get to Iraq.

bwhahahahaha

thanks; funny.

Retired (from private practice) 68 year old doctor got his papers in the mail. The man thought it was a mistake. Nope, no mistake he was told. He told them he retired from his practice because he had arthritis. I sure hope he was able to get a MEDICAL deferment. ROFL

can you imagine being 39 and taking orders and being harassed by someone half

your age?

means that the situation is actually much more dire than they're letting on. Fasten your safety belts, the ride's about to get real bumpy!

Now they have no excuse for not going off to war? Bet Ann the Man is forever 39!

At Landstuhl, where most soldiers injured downrange go for medical treatment, more troops arrive with noncombat injuries than fighting wounds. Eight out of 10 soldiers airlifted from battle zones since the beginning of the war in Iraq were treated for noncombat injuries, according to the reserve affairs office.

They suffer from diseases such heart problems, joint pain or noncombat injuries such as fractures suffered during training.

Atop the list of ailments is chest pain, followed by back pain and hernias.

For Dr. (Col.) Randolph Modlin, chief of cardiology at Landstuhl, the figures are easy to explain.

“We’ve never gone to war with guys as old as this before,” he said.

<cut>

While most heart patients are over age 40, like Wolfe, Modlin said doctors have seen clogged arteries in reservists in their 30s.

“It’s just amazing how much coronary disease we’ve seen,” said Dr. (Maj.) Michael Huber, a cardiologist at Landstuhl.

Just last month, doctors found a 95 percent blockage in an artery of 37-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Kris Barrett, a National Guardsman from Michigan. They later discovered Barrett came to war with another artery partially clogged that he knew nothing about.

<cut>

“An average 40-year-old there puts on 40 pounds of gear in that heat and lets people shoot at him — that’s a recipe for heart failure,” Modlin said.

more...

http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/article.asp?section=104&article=26839&archive=true

I guess the women will have to help the infirmed through the obstacle course, while the young men are helping the women.
I smell desperation...

read my posted article just above your post.

medical. and never see action.
Now that I think of it, My cholesterol is a bit high and i have been putting on a few pounds. maybe i will join and get that taken care of while getting in shape. DUH!!!

This sick society is eating itself now...

"while the young men are helping the women. "

WTF does that mean?

and all other * voters.

I wonder what percentage of the brass are hating bu$h'$ guts for ruining the worlds best military?

...offices....:eyes:

Uncle Sam needs you! You must leave your suburban behemoth-home with your traditional family and fight against terror!

No excuses now! To the front conservative men! To the front! The sports bar will be here when you return! To the front!

without their shit together will be joining. and the ones that have not pulled their lives together by the time they are 40 are real winners. enjoy the flood of uber patriots, Bushy.

Uh, no....

feeling even draftier here.

Let's just all up and enlist and start wars everywhere. Why let them repug thugs organize it? Think of it. They would have to vote on which place needed its butt kicked the most. Then they could filibuster... Conservatives don't do too well if you give them more than two choices...

I say let's invade the moon before someone else does. Call it pre-emptive freedom strike.

he's another Bush lunatic who put up a post a little over a year ago saying how he wanted to join the NY state National Guard "to serve" but gave an "Aw shucks" excuse saying he's 36 and too old to join. He put out a half ass request to anyone with knowledge on how he could circumvent this, well looks like he just found his in.

ENLIST JON ALVAREZ INTO THE ARMY RESERVE!! JUST AS GOOD AS THE NYS National Guard!

if you have BEG 39 year olds to join the Army Reserve and national Guard ... :wow: you just kNOW the Army's in deep deep dee shit!!!!

I guess if you have no other job prospects. Seems if patriotism were the essential ingredient ALL of those who would now be included had their chance post 9-11 when patriotism was ballooning across the country. Now? Has anyone been paying attention? Folks are actually realizing what a dickwad Bush is. Polls are way down - no one wants to fight his stinking war.

See it now - we did all we can - now we have to draft your lovely daughter, Mrs. Brown.

and I have to agree another LIHOP 2 is coming. Wasn't it Scott Ritter who said Bush had Iran planned by June of '05? <yikes> Ritter was right about Iraq not having WM D's and it's beginning to look like he may be right about this one as well. <uh oh>

All those brave, typewriter warriors who wanted to serve, but were just a bit too old. They'll finally get their chance!!!

Back in '76 Congress quietly passed a bill allowing for the reinduction of Vietnam vets, regardless of time served, in the event of war or other national need. I read it at the VA trailer at Cal Poly Pomona. At 54 and pissed as hell, if I get pulled back in, their worry about resistance fighters will seem like the good old days.

We will probably see the other branches following suit very soon as they too are having recruitment troubles.

It's only a matter of time now I think.

:grr:

Hes so gung ho, all talk and yak..time for him to put his money where his mouth is...
soooo many chickenhawks with anal cysts.

more: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/22/army.recruiting.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

eom

at the front lines to defend a crumbling lie.

We're marching into the same pit.

... middle-aged grunts.


I'm not talking about senior officers here. Anybody else using NASCAR dads and soccor moms (or their regional equivalent) in their front lines?

He's only 35, if memory serves me. Plenty young enough under the new rules to sign up for the reserves.

then this old lady will probably get into trouble because I'll be damned if I'll let those SOB's get their hands on my two sons!

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/news/ci_2618493

excerpt:

Unexpectedly heavy demands of sustained ground combat are depleting military manpower and gear faster than they can be fully replenished. Shortfalls in recruiting and backlogs in needed equipment are taking a toll, and growing numbers of units have been broken apart or taxed by repeated deployments, particularly in the Army National Guard and Reserve.

"What keeps me awake at night is, what will this all-volunteer force look like in 2007?" Gen. Richard Cody, Army vice chief of staff, told a Senate hearing this week.

The Iraq war has also led to a drop in the overall readiness of U.S. ground forces to handle threats at home and abroad, forcing the Pentagon to accept new risks — even as military planners prepare for a global anti-terrorism campaign that administration officials say could last generations.

Stretched by Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States lacks a sufficiently robust ability to put large numbers of "boots on the ground" in the case of a major emergency elsewhere, such as the Korean Peninsula, in the view of some Republican and Democratic lawmakers and some military leaders.

...more...