Calling All Failures, Slackers and People on the Couch

So the enlistment age for the army has been raised to 42 ( The answer to life the universe and everything). Notice the person in the USA Today story is a 41 year old grandmother. That's right I said grandmother. Her spawn have achieved not only the age to enlist themselves, but to parent the next generation of warriors.

I think this really changes the face of the all volunteer army. One might say that the 35 - 42 age bracket might be called the "last chance to do something with my life group" I can not see many successful stable people, who at the age of 35 or older and well established in a career, might choose to give it all up for a chance to serve the government they love. Sure some of this group may have had a life long string of bad luck or bad circumstances, but on the whole I'm willing to make a heavy wager that the people joining the army from this age bracket are not the best and the brightest of their generation.

If this is the case we have gone from the idea of spending millions of dollars in time and materials on each soldier so as to create the best trained, best equipped military in the world, to a strategy of filling holes in battle groups with whatever we can get. An army of one? I don't think so. (and I never liked that slogan anyway). This is an army of chewing gum and duct tape.

I do not begrudge these people the opportunity to better their lot in life. Perhaps we need to keep this extended age limit permanently as a societal pressure release. People can say, "I can always join the army." It gives the something to fall back on when they reach for the stars and fall flat on their faces. (Time after time).

I'm more than a little afraid of this moves. It makes me wonder what we will do when this to fails to meet the current needs of the army. Will we start reactivating soldiers who have completed their obligation to the army. Will the promise of citizenship turn the U.S army into a version of the foreign legion? Will this eventually lead to a the next president to push for the reinstatement of the draft? Would said draft also pull from the 35 - 42 age group?

From the time I turned 18 to the day I left my parents house I got calls from military recruiters. I wonder how long before it will be before I start receiving these calls again. I wasn't very tempted at 18. We had just fought a war (even a very short one). At 22 I was more than a little frustrated with my life in the warehouse and often thought about going to see a recruiter. These days just the idea of some guy telling me to yell, "Kill! Kill! Kill!" makes me laugh. No breaking down my will to rebuild me as a part of a team thank you very much.

In the end I think we are going to see that these older soldiers are a mistake. They will be in a situation where they are expected to keep up with 19 year olds and take orders from people who could quite possibly 15 - 20 years younger than them. The young people will not be quite as confident in the combat readiness of their older companions.

I hope for the best from this situation. I don't expect it.

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