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To: garryowenartillery

The last draftee retired 2 years ago.

Army’s Last Draftee to Retire After 39 Years
Published July 03, 2011 Associated Press

Mellinger told the draft board there was a mistake.
“I ... told them I don’t need to go into the Army, I’ve got a job,” said Mellinger, who hung drywall for a living. “They just kind of laughed.”
(snip)
He heard so many war stories in training that he was fired up about going, and was disappointed he was instead assigned to be an office clerk in Germany.
(snip)
Mellinger wasn’t long for clerking. He earned a spot in the Army Rangers, and would go on to do more than 3,700 parachute jumps. And despite the 1991 parachute accident that gave him the material for the wind chime, breaking his leg in several places, he went on to run nine marathons. He was made a command sergeant major in 1992.
Nearly a decade later, he was sent to ground zero in New York right after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as part of an advance party from the First Army. Then came his time in Iraq as the top enlisted soldier of the multi-national forces in Iraq, where he says he survived 27 roadside bombings during his deployment of nearly three years straight.
(snip)
“Draftees are pretty maligned over time,” he said, “but the fact is they are part of every branch of service up to 1973, and when you look at what those military branches accomplished over time, I’ll let the record speak for itself.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/03/armys-last-draftee-to-retire-after-3-years/#ixzz2d1ast2Gx


31 posted on 08/25/2013 4:01:32 PM PDT by ansel12 (Obama-[obamacare] "used to be a Republican idea. ThereÂ’s a governor of Massachusetts who set it up.)
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To: ansel12

I’d have to say he’s the exception to the rule, but that’s what made America from it’s founding onward... exceptions to the rule.


42 posted on 08/25/2013 4:20:40 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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