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"Are you eligible for the National Guard or Reserves?"

I don't think I am eligible. When I was three years old, I had close to half of my left lung removed due to an abscess. Later on, the lung pretty much grew back to what the normal size should be. I do not know if the military would have taken me or not. I probably could have pressed the matter and gotten in, but now I doubt that I could get in. I'm 35 years old right now. When the 9/11 attacks happened, I contacted a recruiter about signing up. It happened to be a Marine Corp recruiter. He sent me a generic E-mail stating that I was too old to begin training (at that time I was 30, and he said that the cutoff was 28). There was no other information offered, and I assumed that the 28 year old cutoff age was universal for all branches of the service. A couple of years later, I read about some 32 year old journalist who signed up in the Marine Corp. The made some special exception for him. I guess I should have gone to journalism school.

Currently, given my age and my allergies to cats and dogs, I'm not sure if they would take me.

"When I was three years old, I had close to half of my left lung removed due to an abscess. Later on, the lung pretty much grew back to what the normal size should be. I do not know if the military would have taken me or not. I probably could have pressed the matter and gotten in, but now I doubt that I could get in. I'm 35 years old right now."

Our US Army might not take you for any combat specialty at this point in time. But you are 35 and at least somewhat good at writing. We as a nation can benefit much more from your pro-defense loyalty and ability to write than from having you dig holes, take part in creating fire volume and take abuse from the uneducated. At your age of 35, our Army will not allow you to become an officer despite our Army's shortage of older, wiser leaders.

The pen (and now, the keyboard) is mightier than the sword (or more accurately, a very strong support to our military forces).