Sunday, September 23, 2007

The New Army Recruit

I'm at a wedding in Syracuse so I get a chance to speak with my cousin who is stationed at Ft. Drum. He's a sergeant of an infantry platoon. He has been deployed to S. Korea once, Afghanistan twice and Iraq once. They are scheduled for another deployment to Iraq in several months.

He tells me about a phone call he received the other day. His platoon had just gotten a new man. My cousin always asks two questions about the new man. First, is he fat. "Afterall, we are an infantry platoon". The second question surprised me. He asks how old the new man is. In this case, the answer is 42! My cousin exclaims "They send a 42 year old guy to an infantry platoon"! This is pretty amazing. I knew the age limit for new recruits had gone up, but sending them to a fighting infantry platoon instead of a support position? Where is the logic in that.

1 comment:

Sara said...

desperation