Able-Bodied Enough

I've posted about something similar (I just don't feel like combing through my archives right now). Unfortunately the Sandusky Register is a (paid) subscription only site, but this arrived in my email box. Short version: here's another example of how desperate the military is to fill slots. Keegan is 58 years old, has been retired from the National Guard for eight years--and is about to ship out to Iraq. Since the Register won't let me link to the article, here it is in full:

Jim Keegan served in the U.S. Army National Guard for 28 years, but he has never gone to war.

That is about to change. After eight years of retirement, the Army wants him back.

The retired warrant officer spent his last day in Ohio Oct. 1 with his friends and family, watching his son Todd's football game. Jim Keegan, of Vickery, left for Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., the next morning with a Margaretta victory fresh on his mind.

Andy Keegan, 19, put off looking for a job so he could drive with his father from Vickery to Missouri, talking face to face for the
last time in at least a year and a half.

"You are always worried about the unknown, but after the initial shock it's just a job I have to do," Jim Keegan said. "I just live everyday like it's my last. I always have."

Jim Keegan's return to active service came just days after his marriage ended. In one month, he had to tie up a divorce, train his replacement in
the Ohio Veterans Home maintenance department and cherish limited time with his family.

But he is not alone.

As of July, the Pentagon has recalled about 5,600 Army veterans back to active service to aid in the war, according to an article posted on globalsecurity.org, a military think tank based in Washington, D.C.

More than 60 percent of soldiers in Iraq are reserve or National Guard, Maj. David F. Creamer wrote in an e-mail from Baghdad. Creamer is an Independent Ready Reserve officer recalled to duty on July 6. He said the Air Force and Marines have a heavy reserve presence in Iraq, but the Army is the largest force with the largest reserve.

Still, it is stretched thin.

"The Army is running out of reserve units that can be rotated back in and not be required to serve over consecutive 24 months," Creamer said. "By the time call up, training, mission and redeployment is done, the Army guys only have a couple of months left for service."

Air Force members typically serve 120-day tours, Marines do 7-month rotations and the Army does 13-month rotations.

Jim Keegan was recalled for 545 days, but he is already preparing for an extended tour.

He said the job is still the same, but the technology has changed.

At 58 years old, Jim Keegan has 25 days to go through processing, get used to running 5 miles a day and learn all the new technological advances on the equipment he will be working on in Iraq.

"I was shocked when he was called back with his age," his mother, Helen Keegan, said. "He's got the kids and he's got me, but we just pray for the best and pray it won't be long until he gets back."

Before he left, Jim Keegan was still not sure exactly what his assignment would be. Because he has so many years of experience, he said it is
possible the Army would want him to be an instructor. But it is more likely he will end up in Iraq, he said.

"My biggest fear is being able to protect my troops if I end up in command because I have been out for so long," he said.

Creamer said more than half of the U.S. force in Iraq is juggling their civilian lives and their military careers. "Most of us here are the same way," he said. "We don't really want to be here, but we all agreed to come if the call was made. It's kinda like the Commissioner putting the 'bat light' in the sky for Batman. We dropped our civilian jobs, put our lives on hold and our families lives as well and came."

At least Keegan, from what I can tell, appears to be in good health. IIRC, the other article I came across--about a 56 year old man who was likewise called up--mentioned some serious health issues.

So, maybe this is how Bush will avoid the draft--he'll call back men old enough to be grandfathers.