View Full Version : A Little Too Long in the Tooth
Going back in at 59? I get the whole stay fit/age is just a number school of thought , but touching 60 years old? I respect the guys desire to serve, but I recall looking at my First Sergeants as a young private and thinking “ I respect the hell out of this man, but he’s getting up there in the years”.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/country-star-craig-morgan-reenlists-army-reserve-59
I would bet he was asked in some fashion given the recruitment issues today...I doubt he'll carry the squad MG.
I doubt he'll carry the squad MG.
Quote: With his reenlistment, Morgan will hold the rank of Staff Sergeant and Warrant Officer.
WO don't carry their own coffee mug :D
Quote: Morgan has also worked with the USO, and has earned the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Medal and the USO Merit Award. During his time in the service, he won awards for songs that he wrote and performed for his fellow soldiers.
This sounds like the WWII Hollywood Actors' enlistments for the USO Tours and Bonds. This time they are looking for recruits.
Quote: “The Hollywood Victory Caravan was an idea of the U.S. Treasury Department—a trainload of fifty Hollywood names making whistle-stops across the country to sell war bonds. They had no trouble getting stars; who in Hollywood had the guts to tell the IRS he was going to be out of town?” – Bob Hope from I Was There.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/hitting-road-hollywood-victory-caravan
Charles "Chuck" Powell was my TmSgt. He was a Serb and hard rock miner here in Colorado. He retired at age 62. Two years before that, IIRC, we had to do that team "recertification" thing out at Ft. Carson. It was early in the year, pretty brisk, and we had a few inches of crusty snow on the ground. There we were - movement to contact, contact, assault. And there was Chuck with the M60 doing three-second rushes.
He was a great man, a better man than me, I miss him.
In Erwin Shaw 1926 anti war play "Bury the Dead" there is a line that is expressed on the terrible cost that WW1 extracted. It is expressed as experienced under murderous MG fire, when the PL laments:
....They'er just kids...
I've always felt that we old men would best serve that inglorious outcome in a good death, that recruitment and strife would best be serve by those who have lived their full measure, and in that manner, confront those who so willingly cast the die of fate with no risk to themselves at all.
There is a recent video that was recorded at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier this past week. It recorded the dedication and discipline in hurricane force winds of an 3rd Inf Old Guard Sentinel executing his duty.
It became hard to swallow and my mind moved to those left behind.
I hate war, and I hate those who drag us to the abyss.
Yet, I love the idea of free worship, thought, and expression, and self protection, and willingly raise a hand to preserve and defend that idea at any cost, whether or not you believe the same.
https://nypost.com/2023/07/31/soldier-continues-watch-over-tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier-as-hurricane-force-winds-rain-lash-dc-area/