I'm 35 and being recruited by the Army Reserve?!?

[eyepaddle]

I got one brochure in the mail and thought it was a little funny, and a sign of how hurting they are for warm bodies. Then I thought it must've been an oops of some kind.

Well, I just got another one. I am in grad school now (in a public health field, though not a medical one) and it's a big push about how I cna stay in college and all the typical Army Reserve benefits.

For the record, I'm 35, asthmatic, a bit overweight and have extremely poor eyesight (bad enough that they turned me down in 1988) but the fact that they know I'm in college and my suspicious mind tell me they probably know I am as old as I in fact am--yet recruit me they do.

My professional background is chemical waste management, which includes spill cleanup, and I would in fact be okay with being in some kind of Chemical Incident response corps--if there were such a thing. I have no interest in digging * out of the personnel woes of his own creation though.

If I were a 17 year old today I'd be a little concerned.

[kliljedahl]

1. You need a new user name

How about "Cannon Fodder"?


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[eyepaddle]

3. I'd rather not that one!

Part of me wonders why they decided I was vulnerable? Did I score high on some unknown "he's seems pathetic, let's see if he buys what we're selling" list.

[lenidog]

5. Probably a mass mailing

[eyepaddle]

9. Nah, they spelled my name right,

plus it seems to be skewed towrds medical people. (which I'm not--I'm industrial hygiene) they meant to get me.

[lenidog]

13. They probably looked up college rosters and then cross checked it with

majors. Then when they found the kind of majors they were looking for shipped them out. I haven't gotten one yet which suprises me because I was in for 8 years and was combat arms.

[eyepaddle]

16. That's kind of what I'm thinking,

but the school knows how old I am. Back in the 80s (I'm not sure if they recruit women as heavily as men these days--back then it was mainly guys) They knew when you were a high school senior and you got barraged with phone calls and mail offers.

I like to stay active, I hike, camp, whitewater paddle, but the thought of going for a run with a backpack surrounded by 18 year olds is terrifyingly amusing.

[SoCalDem]

24. Not up for a "Pvt. Benjamin" moment, eh?

:)

[eyepaddle]

25. Nice!

:rofl:

[FreedomAngel82]

15. That's probably it

They thought since you were in medicial you wouldn't see any fighting and you'd join up. Tricksters.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. Who was the one who kept droning

"there-won't-be-a-draft-there-won't-be-a-draft..." every time anyone went within a mile of the subject?

[Clovis Sangrail]

4. enrollment list?

maybe they just got a list of all students at your school :shrug:

[eyepaddle]

6. I've checked and nobody else in the School of Public Health

has been contacted yet.

About the best I can figure is that many of my classmates are either: 1) female, or 2) married. Perhaps they think that my being neither of those makes me want a taste of that ol' Army life.

[FreedomAngel82]

17. Probably

But eventually they'll go to them I think. They are getting desperate.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

7. Last week I got one too.

And I'm older than you (and no, I'm not saying by how much. :) ) I'm taking classes at local community college, so I'm pretty sure that's where they got my name and address.

[Tux]

12. Mmmmm

Bush did recommend people go to community colleges for the jobs of the future. Is this his future?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. It's a great opportunity!! You too can make the "ultimate sacrifice"!!

So the politicians can weep crocodile tears over you and inscribe your name on a monument that they can make speeches at to sell the next war.

[JackintheGreen]

10. Oh Boy!

That's good to know. I'm 31, back in grad school inregional studies (India), and I've already gotten close to $30,000 in Title VI money to study regional languages (I chose Tamil, hoping that it would make me less desirable to the military-industrial complex).

But, there's the funny story to go along with this:

When I first got accepted to Penn, I joked with my wife "do you suppose that I could write to the government and ask for more money if I promised to study such-and-such a language?" (I think it was Pashto, because Penn had just started a Pashto program.) Swear to god, the next week I got a letter from the govt. saying something to the effect of "Congratulations, you have just been awarded a FLAS fellowship in the amount of tuition+stipend. All YOU have to do is study a modern INdian language: why not PASHTO!"

Mondo freaky, what?

[eyepaddle]

14. You are on the list!

Check you mailbox regularly.

[FreedomAngel82]

19. Weird!

[Tracer]

11. I read somewhere ...

... and I'm sorry that I have no link - that the age for recruitment has now gone up to 40.

[Sapphire Blue]

20. Selective Service Plan Memo

From Rolling Stone (Posted Jan 27, 2005)...

The memo then proposes, in detail, that the Selective Service be "re-engineered" to cover all Americans -- "men and (for the first time) women" -- ages eighteen to thirty-four. In addition to name, date of birth and Social Security number, young adults would have to provide the agency with details of their specialized skills on an ongoing basis until they passed out of draft jeopardy at age thirty-five. Testifying before Congress two weeks after the meeting, acting director of Selective Service Lewis Brodsky acknowledged that "consultations with senior Defense manpower officials" have spurred the agency to shift its preparations away from a full-scale, Vietnam-style draft of untrained men "to a draft of smaller numbers of critical-skills personnel."

Richard Flahavan, spokesman for Selective Service, tells Rolling Stone that preparing for a skills-based draft is "in fact what we have been doing." For starters, the agency has updated a plan to draft nurses and doctors. But that's not all. "Our thinking was that if we could run a health-care draft in the future," Flahavan says, "then with some very slight tinkering we could change that skill to plumbers or linguists or electrical engineers or whatever the military was short." In other words, if Uncle Sam decides he needs people with your skills, Selective Service has the means to draft you -- and quick.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/6862691?rnd=1117308068109&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1069

[eyepaddle]

22. Thanks for that,

I was looking around for something like that, but couldn't find it.

I got sad news for them, I can design ventilation systems to protect workers from airborne contamintation, but I wouldn't have the faintest idea as to how to treat "combat trauma."

[Sapphire Blue]

23. Like the article says, "...if Uncle Sam decides he needs people

... with your skills, Selective Service has the means to draft you -- and quick."


CO info & resources: http://www.peace-out.com/

[kliljedahl]

21. 39 for a reservist

Yes it happened.
Link: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3095522


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Warpy]

18. I've got more than 20 years on you and they send me

recruitment trash every month.

They must be desperate for nurses.

[formercia]

26. Cleaning up WMD's

Hope springs eternal. LOL!