Since not enough of us were killed in Vietnam, obviously something has to be done about the elephant being digested by a snake that is the baby boom generation. We didn't volunteer for the first Gulf War, so the ranks weren't significantly thinned then. And kicking us out of the work force at 45 doesn't seem to be doing the trick.
So the U.S. military has the answer: raise the enlistment age to 42! This way, some of those 14,000 HP employees and the 10,000 Kodak employees who are going to lose their jobs as just announced this week, and those affected by the 538,274 job cuts through June, have an option: offer themselves up as cannon fodder:
The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.
Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties.
The Pentagon’s request to raise the maximum recruit age to 42 is part of what defense officials are calling a package of “urgent wartime support initiatives” sent to Congress Monday night prior to a Tuesday hearing of the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee.
I guess this is the Administration's new Social Security plan -- feed enough baby-boomers into the Iraq meat grinder so fewer benefits have to be paid. If you get us before we hit 55, we'll cost the system a whole lot less.
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