Draft Old Guys

While the thoughts below weren't written by SGT Loyd Wright, they were passed on by him in an email recently. He (pictured on the right) recently had a birthday on December 13th, and SFC Mike Adams (pictured on the left) also had one on December 22nd. We were all fortunate enough to be here to celebrate with them both. SGT Wright's message immediately came to mind:


New Direction for War:

I am over 60, and the Armed Forces thinks I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 42 to join the military. They've got the whole thing back to front. Instead of sending 18-year-olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join a military unit until you're at least 35.

For starters, researchers say 18-year-olds think about one thing every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about that a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.

Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. 'My back hurts! I can't sleep, I'm tired and hungry.' We are impatient, and letting us kill some jerk that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for a while.

An 18-year-old doesn't even like to get up before 10 a.m. Old guys always get up early to run to the restroom. Besides, like I said, I'm tired and can't sleep and since I'm already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatical jerk.

If captured, we couldn't spill the beans because we'd forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real stretch.

Boot camp would be easier for old guys. We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and we're used to soft food. We've also developed an appreciation for guns. We've been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling.

They could lighten up on the obstacle course, however. I've been in combat and didn't see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any push-ups or sit-ups after completing basic training. Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too. I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet.

An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He's still learning to shave, to start up a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn't figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head.

These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm's way.

Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten cowards. The last thing an enemy would want to see is a couple of million angry old guys with attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are already behind them.