I'm ten years younger than him and have been retired for 7 years. If they call, I'll go. I have a lot of bills that comes with a second marriage and young kids, and my financial situation would stink, but I knew I was lifetime-recallable since I first decided to go career 25 years ago. I'll serve proudly if called.
I don't think any of us expected differently from you. I salute you guys that would gladly return to service. That isn't the point. The point is that we have about 150,000 troops on the ground in Iraq, and are running out of bodies to keep on the ground there.
Let's flash back to Vietnam. At one point we had in excess of 500,000 troops on the ground there. That is three times the number we have in Iraq today. This exemplifies the problem in a way that I evidently haven't been able to fully explain before this.
Our military takes a smaller slice of the overall budget than ever before. Our troop stengths are evidently less than 1/3rd of what they were in the 70s.
Is this really the defense preparedness we are willing to accept? Well, not this guy. I'm going to speak out against it whenever possible.
Out military forces are too damned small. We are underequiped and ill-prepared for the reality we find ourselves today.
Korea, Iran, Tiawan, Iraq, Israel, are each places that could to balistic at just about any moment. Who are we kidding by intimating that we have an adequate military force today?
As far as I know, there is no such thing as being "lifetime-recallable" at least for enlisted-men. I had a 4 year active four year IIR obligation and good luck to them trying to say I had to come back after I got my honorable dishcharge in 98. Lucky for them I went active reserves in 2003