41 Year Old Grandmother Joins The Army
*Sigh* Are things really THIS bad?
This isn't a joke. It's true. The United States Army now has recruits who are in their 40's.
I know we're at war and all that... but 41 year old recruits? I'm sure these older recruits are plenty patriotic and all... but are ALL the eligible 18-28 year olds already serving?
The answer to that is an obvious HELL NO!!!
OK, the President won't come out and say it... so I will.
Young men of America - I'm speaking specifically to you, because you will be the ones who'll be the gunslingers. Your country needs you --- desperately.
Young men of America - Because of a lack of men joining, young LADIES now have to man the weapons on convoy duty (and other related operations) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of a lack of men joining, young LADIES are engaged in firefights. Because of a lack of men joining, young LADIES are being killed in combat. All because of a lack of men who are man enough to answer the call of duty.
Young men of America - One day when you are bouncing your grandchildren on your knee, they'll ask you what you did in the war that kept us free from terrorism. What answer will you give them? "I wanted to stay in school" --- "I had a career to worry about" --- "I was content to let your grandmother do my fighting for me" --- "I was a coward".
Young men of America... young CATHOLIC men of America - What kind of real Catholic man has a woman do his fighting for him?
*Sigh* Are things really THIS bad?
This isn't a joke. It's true. The United States Army now has recruits who are in their 40's.
I know we're at war and all that... but 41 year old recruits? I'm sure these older recruits are plenty patriotic and all... but are ALL the eligible 18-28 year olds already serving?
The answer to that is an obvious HELL NO!!!
OK, the President won't come out and say it... so I will.
Young men of America - I'm speaking specifically to you, because you will be the ones who'll be the gunslingers. Your country needs you --- desperately.
Young men of America - Because of a lack of men joining, young LADIES now have to man the weapons on convoy duty (and other related operations) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of a lack of men joining, young LADIES are engaged in firefights. Because of a lack of men joining, young LADIES are being killed in combat. All because of a lack of men who are man enough to answer the call of duty.
Young men of America - One day when you are bouncing your grandchildren on your knee, they'll ask you what you did in the war that kept us free from terrorism. What answer will you give them? "I wanted to stay in school" --- "I had a career to worry about" --- "I was content to let your grandmother do my fighting for me" --- "I was a coward".
Young men of America... young CATHOLIC men of America - What kind of real Catholic man has a woman do his fighting for him?
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
9:56 PM
15 Comments:
My brother is 45 at present and he joined the National Guard in early 2002 as a response to 9/11. After training he was deployed to Iraq and spent a year of active duty there. He's been back about a year now. So yeah, the miltary does take people in their 40s--but my brother volunteered to go to Iraq. He's an ex-Marine, too. So it's not like he just came in from out of nowhere and said "sign me up!"
SL,
And in all honesty... Gog bless your brother. But the point I was getting at was, where are the young men?
Guys like your brother are what make America great. Guys who take one step to the side while 41 year old grannies join up are what make America ashamed.
I can see the newest recruiting commercials --- "America has a military for The Ages! The 'Middle Ages', that is"
PS, no such thing as an "ex-Marine". Only Former-Marines!! After all, once a Marine, ALWAYS a Marine!
That is pretty sad that they raised the enlistment age....
All the young men are too busy knocking up young women and becoming young fathers.
Im all for mandatory military service at 18.
Yes and there are no "Ex-Marines"...we are born from fire and brimstone!
I think the young ones are spoiled and lazy. I have a co-worker is also a FORMER Marine (hee) and he says the young guys in the military today (what he sees on TV and reads about, etc) are just radically different from decades before. Now they are lazy, spoiled and undisciplined. They join for free education or just to get out of the holes they are in but when a war actually happens they are pissed that they have to actually work.
"I cannot recommend the present military as a moral choice for our young men?"
So when is it ok for the men to join the military? When it suits your needs and ideals? The government cant please everyone at the same time.
I cant put the words "moral" and "young men" in the same sentence....its an oxymoron.
Also I didnt know being a pacifist was some sort of disease that was worth recovering from.
Dont mind me....I just watched Jarhead and Im upset that I didnt get to see any killing. :(
Army Airborne vet here.... I totally agree with you, Caveman. The young males who inhabit our universities and spend their free time drinking and carousing while others fight and die disgust me. The concept of honor has been lost to large parts of our society.
On the other hand, I have to point out, sadly, that our national leaders have done a dismal job rallying the people to fight the battle together. Quite the opposite, actually. What were we told after 9-11? Go on about your normal lives. If you change anything the terrorists will have won.
No - we SHOULD have changed, in many many ways. The reality is that the nation is not "at war." The president is at war. The soldiers and marines are definitely at war. But we as a people are not. Other than lines at the airport and higher gas prices, our lives are not much different than they were in Aug 2001. In WW2, FDR got the country involved in hundreds of small ways - war bonds, rationing, civil defense, etc - as well as the draft that took in almost every able-bodied male. GWB should have done likewise. The fact that he chose not to will go down as one of his greatest mistakes, in my opinion.
None of this excuses the slacker boys who need to have some sense kicked into them. But it helps explain it.
Patrick
I once saw a reference in an article on uniforms to a "Maternity BDU." Sending women into combat is truly NOT part of the western tradition of warfare, a tradition that goes back to Ancient Greece. A few thoughts...
I wonder if this is at all like the altar boy thing, once they start taking girls the number of boys wanting to serve at Mass plummets. Likewise when every single millitary recuriting commerical includes women the armed forces become less of a "man thing."
Secondly, I know some people who have gone into the millitary who are a real credit to my generation, and then I know some who are complete thugs. I give them all credit for going though. Just prior to the 2004 elections there were "draft counseling" boths set up around campus. Something like 80% of kids my age seem to say if there was a draft they would flee to Canada.
The fact is by-and large my generation is selfish, I don't want to be seen as passing the buck but a lot of this is the fault of the baby boomers, the WWII generation passed the boomers the torch of the greatest nation on earth and the some boomers proceded to use it to light their joint's and burn flags.
We are just begining to reap the whirlwind that was sewn in the 60's and 70's.
Also, something tells me if it weren't for a certain 1973 court decision there would be MILLIONS more young American MEN of millitary age. Also more kids born probably would have meant larger familes, and less selfishness.
Great post Caveman!
Well I was rejected for service on account of my asthma, and some of the more recent health that have come up probably would also disqualified me. At least I tried!
True , true, Perun. At least you stepped forward
- One of my best friends, a former Marine, has just been talking to recruiters about re-enlisting in the National Guard (his wife put the kibosh on active duty). He's 34, so no spring chicken, but not a 41-year-old grandparent either. And when he originally joined the Marines (during the first Gulf War) he explicitly wanted to be sent to Iraq, but the war ended a few weeks after he signed the papers so he spent most of his tour in Okinawa.
- My boyfriend (although Canadian, not American) wanted to serve in the Armed Forces but never can because he's legally blind (ocular albinism).
- While as a woman I'm not the object of scrutiny, I actually considered the Air Force toward the end of high school, but found out my medical history would prevent it.
I think that in addition to personal selfishness (which is not new to this generation - didn't Dick Cheney say he had "other priorities" during Vietnam?), young people are being discouraged from joining up by their baby-boomer parents. I know my mother in particular would have a fit if I tried to enlist (and not b/c I'm a woman, either).
I was rejected initially on account of some allergy snafu....so I parents had my ass retested and I passed the med screen....I still have the original letter from the doc saying I was DQ'ed..
Sucker!
Oh and go check out my Jahead post over at the GOH....OH THE HUGEMANATEE!!!!
Petrus, you said "I cannot recommend the present military as a moral choice for our young men?"
.
It sure must be nice to pick and choose where your duty lies.
In case you weren't aware of it, there are a whole buncha Islamo-Facists who would just loooooove to slit the throats of you, me, our spouses, our children, etc, etc.
And the only earthly thing that stands in between them doing such and stopping them is a lil' sumthin' called the Armed Forces of the United States of America.
Please consider that before making statements like the one you posted.
cerberus:
All the young men are too busy knocking up young women and becoming young fathers.
Nothing wrong with that, so long as they are married to the women in receipt of said knocking. The American birthrate is like that of Europe: below replacement level. We need more Catholic babies in Catholic families.
Im all for mandatory military service at 18.
I am not. I am for granting citizenship to adult, literate, propertied, Catholic men who have been discharged honourably from military service... and to no one else. You dont want to fight? That's fine. You dont need to tell me when and where I need to go fight or take my money and give it to heretics.
angry orthodox:
...wife says I can't enlist. Just got married.
What "wife" says doesnt over-rule what you decide as the husband and father of your family.
A bitch county procescutor [sic] says...
You could've just stopped right there. Women "participating" in the legal system is like inmates running an asylum.
petrus radii:
women are in combat roles because the PC brass have kow-towed to the Libs and put the women in harm's way, not because of the genuine lack of decent young men...
Absolutely correct. The Libs (a term which includes Communists, Socialists, and Liberals of both the Republican and Democratic parties) hated the military when it represented a culture of which they didnt approve (the racially-segregated, heterosexual, all-male, mission-oriented, anti-Communist culture [in other words, a traditionally European culture]). Once they got the ability to dismantle the military by integrating it, indoctrinating it, giving it lots of perks like maternity wards and breast cancer treatment, they did so with a vengeance.
Ask yourself: if you were a young, traditionally-oriented man in contemporary American culture seeking a "rite of passage" into heterosexual male adulthood, would you choose service in today's military? Maybe in a few elite, combat-arms-type outfits. But it wont be long before they're gone, too.
Our Federal government now uses our military, not to protect our borders, but to oppress other sovereign peoples, and to impose a Trotskyite "World Democratic Revolution"
Used to be, only the Soviet Union engaged in so-called "Wars of Liberation". A lot has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
patrick:
The concept of honor has been lost to large parts of our society.
The concept of honour implies that there are non-negotiable standards of moral and ethical behaviour to which one must be held strictly accountable.
We live in a multicultural, tolerant, inclusive, "I'm okay/you're okay/we're all okay" society that debases every objective moral standard. There can be no concept of honour (at least, as we know it) in such an environment.
fidei defensor:
I wonder if this is at all like the altar boy thing, once they start taking girls the number of boys wanting to serve at Mass plummets. Likewise when every single millitary recuriting commerical includes women the armed forces become less of a "man thing."
Ask VSC: I dont believe in coincidences.
The more feminine the military becomes, the fewer real men will want to join it. You might not like to hear it, but that is the fact of the matter. I've known too many good men -- the kind of guys who might not make very good poets, but can rip you limb from limb effortlessly: you know, the kind of men you need defending your culture -- who got out because of the feminisation of the military.
I think this policy of feminisation is being done deliberately to weaken the fighting ability of the U.S. Armed Forces by undermining its morale, unit cohesion, and raw, physical strength.
perun:
Well I was rejected for service on account of my asthma...
No dishonour in that. You were good to have tried.
End of rant. :-D
Great post, Caveman! We in green (and all the other services) thank you and ask the same question! Probably some stupid peace-love-dope parents dissauding their otherwise common sensical kids from joining. I'm telling you, the world won't be free until the baby boomers die. (Sorry Mom and Dad--Still love you!)
Petrus,
Go to hell.
This is tangentially related. Anyone know what the top cut-off age was for draftees during WWII? I've always been curious, because I know that my grandfather was at least 32 years old when he was drafted into the army. And when I was researching his records, I came across another WWII soldier who was older than my grandfather at the time of being drafted.
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