Re: in atentziea celor interesatzi si'a patriotzilor: se necesita boots in za armi !
- From: "Prof. Dr. Ing. IPS Raspopitul Esq." <raspopitul@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 13 Aug 2006 08:32:27 -0700
Ai ?! Tu'va-n zbenga, amu ie sansa voastra de someri, chiar daca
crapati in Irak, da' crapati onorabil. Va achitat restantele fata de
Tara Tuturor Posibilitatilor. Vangheliiiii, ia zi tu ce scrie pa
statuia Libertatii, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ????
vanghele wrote:
August 14, 2006
Grandma wears Army boots - and boy, is she proud
Basic training ages with grace
Margie Black - mother, grandmother, prison guard - has a new title:
Private,
U.S. Army. [Note: she is African American]
At 41, she's more than twice the age of the never-been-away-from-home
teenagers
who fidget and fret at the L. Mendel Rivers complex, the Army's front
door to
the newly enlisted at Fort Jackson, S.C. She's been here less than a
week, and
her calm demeanor has earned her a nickname.
"They call me Mom."
And she's not alone. Since January, the Army has increased the maximum
enlistment age from 35 to 42, and people once deemed too old to fight
have
signed on the dotted line.
David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness,
says the
improved health and fitness of middle-aged Americans makes it possible
for them
to enlist.
"People are living longer and are much healthier and physically fit
into older
ages than was true in earlier generations," he said.
So far, only five people 40 and older - and 324 age 35 and older - have
enlisted, Army records show. But members of their ranks are proving to
be made
of some tough stuff.
Pfc. Cindra Smith, 39, known as "Mama" or "Grandma" to some of her C
Company
platoon members at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is training to go to Iraq to
disarm
bombs like the one that seriously injured her daughter.
Smith, of Xenia, Ohio, fractured a hip during basic training at Fort
Jackson,
S.C. In March, her mother died of cancer. And in June, shortly after
her
daughter had a child, doctors found a tumor on her daughter's brain
stem,
requiring surgery.
But after a 10-day leave to be with her daughter, Smith was back in
training, an
inspiration to others.
"She leads by setting an example," said Luisana Valencia, 20, of
Visalia,
Calif., a private in Smith's platoon. "We go on runs, people get tired.
She
pushes herself and doesn't stop [and says], 'Hey, I'm older than you,
but I'm
not giving up.'"
Laurie-Ann Fuca, a 41-year-old mother of four, left for boot camp July
31 -
three weeks after her eldest son was sent to Iraq at age 19. She'll
train at
Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Fuca plans to go into a medical specialty and aims to help wounded
troops and
civilians. A native of Canada who has been a legal U.S. resident for
the past
decade, Fuca said the desire is probably in her blood. Her father and
sister
served in the Canadian army and her brother still does.
"My son was like 'You're crazy. Moms don't join the military.' I told
him a lot
of soldiers are somebody's mom, and he said, 'Yeah, but you're MY
mom!'"
One-stop recruiting
Ever since Margie Black was 19, she wanted to join the Army. Pregnancy
with her
daughter Ashley prevented that.
When Ashley, now 21, got serious about enlisting in the Army recently,
recruiter
Staff Sgt. James Alston, dropped Ashley off at home and joked with
Black about
signing the mom up. A few days later, Alston called Black to tell her
the Army
had raised its eligibility limit to a day short of 42.
For Alston, it was one-family shopping. "Her daughter joined on Monday;
she
joined on Friday."
;Black arrived at hot, humid Fort Jackson on July 20 to begin her
four-year
enlistment. After she graduates from basic training, she'll get
instruction to
be a truck dispatcher. She wanted to be a sniper, because of the
stealth
required, but it's closed to women.
The Army has the military's highest age limit. The Air Force and Marine
limits
are 27, while the Navy's is 35.
Physical fitness, not age, should determine who serves, says David
Segal, a
military sociologist at the University of Maryland.
"We used to use gender as a surrogate to determine if people could do
the job,"
Segal says. "We found out that, A, we needed women for the Army and, B,
they
could do the job. It's the same with age. It really should be physical
ability
that should screen people out for military jobs."
The basic training standards of earning 50 points in each category of
the Army
Physical Fitness Test have not changed for the new older recruits, and
remain
the same as they have been since 1998. Older male recruits may also
join the
infantry.
"If a 42-year-old wants to come into the infantry, he can," said Army
spokesman
Ray Harp. "But the probability of someone doing that is not high."
Raising the age limit of new recruits is one of many steps the Army has
made to
try to increase the recruiting pool: More soldiers are allowed in
without high
school diplomas, recruits now may have tattoos on their necks and
hands, and
more soldiers have been allowed in with lower Army aptitude-test
scores.
.
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