Posted on 05/29/2014 4:09:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Sgt. 1st Class John Taffe might be the oldest person to graduate from basic combat training.
Sgt. 1st Class John Taffe may be 55 years old, but he definitely doesn’t act his age.
That’s because Taffe may possibly be the oldest person to graduate from basic combat training – tackling sit-ups, push-ups and barbed-wire low crawls like any other young soldier in his class.
A resident of Alameda, Taffe graduated from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Thursday after a demanding 2 1/2-month training. He’s a former sailor, having served 14 years with the U.S. Navy before being released from active duty in 1991.
Taffe’s age almost stopped him from enlisting in the Army, but he made the cut-off, getting in 36 hours before his 55th birthday, when a waiver would have been required.
NSA Releases Email Snowden Sent to Agency Officials “My son told me, ‘I hope they crush you.’ My daughter was more concerned,” Taffe said of his family’s reaction to his decision to re-enlist. “My plan is to serve until I’m 62.”
“For John to come back at his age, it says a lot about his character,” said Shatara Seymour, chief of public affairs at Fort Leonard Wood.
Taffe is back in the Bay Area Friday, where he will join the Army Reserve and go back to his job as a logistics management specialist for the Department of Homeland Security.
Right after he finished a night crawl while live shots were fired over his head, NBC Bay Area caught up with Taffe to ask him what boot camp felt like at age 55.
When was the exact moment you realized that you wanted to return to the Military?
"After 9/11 I really felt compelled to rejoin the military, but the organization I worked for was not supportive of the idea. It wasn't until almost 14 years later that the opportunity presented itself again while I was exploring other positions within the government. At this time my only choice was the U.S. Army due to my age."
What inspired you to return?
"Serving as a military member is the most unique way to pay it forward for those you love, those you honor, and those who have been lost and couldn't return home. It is the most honorable way for an individual to serve his or her country."
How did your family react?
"A degree of shock at first, but when they saw my commitment and drive to making it a reality, they knew it was the right decision."
How did you prepare yourself?
"I consulted with my doctor, completely changed my diet and eating habits, ramped up my exercise routine, running further and faster almost every day, joined a Cross Fit gym and rode to work every day on my bicycle."
How did others in boot camp react when they saw you training? How do they react now?
"Older people would come up to me and ask my age, and tell me they couldn't/wouldn't dream of doing what I was doing. The younger ones wanted to know if I was human or if I had discovered the fountain of youth. They all say I am an inspiration to them now and that if you get your mind and body right you can achieve anything"
You mentioned culture change and how younger soldiers have a different attitude now. Can you elaborate?
"The military they perceive is like a video game, when in fact it is very far from it. It requires real effort, both physical and mental strength to win in battle. You can't win by how well you can manipulate a game controller."
What is boot camp like?
"Up at 04:00, shave, conduct physical training for about 1.5 hours until breakfast, then it's off to the ranges to conduct live fire training with our weapon. MRE for lunch, continue training until 17-18:00, dinner, back to training after dinner until final formation at 20:30. Then shower, laundry, letter writing and bed by 21:00. Up again for a one hour watch detail between 21:00 - 04:00."
What was the hardest part of your training?
"The physical stuff wasn’t so hard, it was almost too easy. The mental part was hard – just trying to cope with the different things."
Did you feel like quitting at any point?
"At first I did question my thought process that brought me here. I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, just like the lines of the Soldier’s Creed I learned here in the first couple of weeks."
What do you plan to do next?
"Go home to my family and job."
Wow, but I thought the cutoff was at 35? So you can join even at 55?
For the Army I believe it’s 42.
In order to protect Obama, they excised the KEY reason he re-joined; he and his wife didn’t have enough money to send their two kids in college.
JUST IMAGINE the heavy emphasis that detail otherwise would have received, had a REPUBLICAN been Prez;
They would have been screaming it over and over again.
But here, they dress everything up in bows and sprinkle a quart of perfume all over it.
Don’t forget about the way they treated higher unemployment rates after Obama was first immaculate;
They CONGRADULATED him on his genius in HELPING FAMILIES SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER.
They gushed louder even that Kim Jong Un’s frenzied acolytes….!
The presstitutes DIVE to their knees wearing KFC bibs and beg to gulp down His Majesty’s essence.
A thread from yesterday if anyone is reading the comments thereon:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3161129/posts
From the article:
Taffe’s age almost stopped him from enlisting in the Army, but he made the cut-off,
getting in 36 hours before his 55th birthday, when a waiver would have been required
There’s some guys aged 60+ years old in Ukraine fighting against the Russians/Chechens who are invading their homeland. If there is a will, there is a way. Good on patriots like this!
What a mensch!
No you can’t just join at 55, but he had served 14 years in the Navy, so that 14 was deducted from 55 giving him the chance to continue his military service without asking for an age waiver, that may not have been granted. All years completed with completed points for retirement are recognized as years completed.
A reservist can collect a pension at age 60 if they have served 20 years. He was able to get in under the wire using his 14 years, and save his chance for a pension later. Albeit that pension will be smaller than a full time military personnel. His twenty years will be finished at age 62, hence his statement that he would stay until age 62..and that is how it works.
That is exactly what he was trying to get accomplished. Another article I read indicated they had children who they wanted to help in college. So getting 6 more years would help his retirement.
There are people who have lost their jobs that would have given the a good retirement, and those with his kind of good years in military do have a chance to get some kind of retirement by going into one of the forces.... if they aren’t too old. I wish him well.
Regardless of the reason why he did it, if Army boot camp is anywhere near as tough as it was in 1973, he’s one tough SOB.
He may be in better shape than some of the youngsters that sit around all day playing video games.
Agreed.
The impetus for giving up his comfortable life by the bay was mostly financial. He and
his wife were going over the family’s budget last year and saw the cost of college tuition
for their two teenagers looming before them. Taffe had already spent 14 years with
the Navy, and by adding another six years with the Reserve he could greatly increase
his benefits, he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Soldier-55-about-to-graduate-from-combat-basic-5510831.php
Where do we find such men?
Alameda
I don’t understand why people do not have their teens start in community college as all degrees require what is known as core courses and they are basically the same no matter where you take them...advanced math, history/geography, social science, and actual sciences like biology etc... The total is about 44 credit hours and then transfer to University debt free, it also give parents two-three more years to save...
Community College will save about half on a college degree as it is very inexpensive. I think it is a better education because you rarely get a political nut case for a Professor. And the kicker is that most employers only care where you got the actual Major/Minor classes for the Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree/Doctorate. It’s a win win for parent and student..it also keeps the teen at home two more years until they are more mature and really are sure where they are headed....many change their minds within two years after high school anyway.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.