Old Enough to Fall, Old Enough to Serve

From the Pen of Tom Toles

Via Blah3: Don't worry. We won't need a draft as long as the elderly are available.

Retired Army colonel, 70, sent to Afghanistan
By R. NORMAN MOODY
Gannett News Service

Dr. John Caulfield thought it had to be a mistake when the Army asked him to return to active duty. After all, he's 70 years old and had already retired - twice. He left the Army in 1980 and private practice two years ago.

"My first reaction was disbelief," Caulfield said. "It never occurred to me that they would call a 70-year-old."

In fact, he was so sure it was an error that he ignored the postcards and telephone messages asking if he would be willing to volunteer for active duty to "backfill" somewhere on the East Coast, Europe or Hawaii. That would be OK, he thought. It would release active duty oral surgeons from those areas to go to combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan.

But then the orders came for him to go to Afghanistan.

Today, Caulfield, a colonel from Satellite Beach, Fla., is an example of how the continuing demands of keeping ground troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are forcing the military to go to extraordinary measures to keep its ranks filled. He's attending to patients - U.S. troops, Afghan soldiers and civilians - at the Army's 325th Field Hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan.

He is one of about 100 over the age of 60 known to be serving. The Department of Defense couldn't provide exact figures.

Comments

[oldgringo]

More of the Bush/Fascist "compassionate, Christian conservatism..." Now what could be "wrong" with that?
After all, the old dude hasn't got THAT much "time left" anyhow, and no self respecting YOUNG REPUBLICAN with the same qualifications would be caught dead going to the "dead end " of serving their country in ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and neither would MOST of their peers in the Democrat RULING ELITE, either.
So, what the hell did you expect RUMMY to do, start a draft?