Army Invites Retirees as Old as 70 to Return to Active Duty in Attempt to Fix Recruiting Woes
“There is no age limitation, although personnel older than 70 are not normally recalled.”
We have been chronicling the serious issues the U.S. military is having with recruiting since Joe Biden took office, and it’s not pretty:
- U.S. Navy, Faced with Recruiting Nightmare, Begins Accepting High School Dropouts
- In Attempt to Boost Recruiting, U.S. Army Secretary Shuffles Deck Chairs on the Titanic
- U.S. Coast Guard Making Drastic Cuts, Citing Recruiting Woes
- As Recruiting Numbers Shrink, U.S .Air Force Expands Body Fat Ranges in New Requirements
- Army Sees Significant Drop in White Recruits
And who could forget my favorite Navy recruiting technique — drag queens!
So I have been wondering for quite a while how the military was going to fix its very serious issues with recruiting, and imagine my surprise when I found out that the answer might be…..wait for it…..ME!!!!!
From the Daily Caller: Army Seeking Retirees To Come Back To Work Amid Manpower Crisis:
The Army is seeking to bring back retired soldiers to fill critical manpower shortages, according to a service-wide directive published this week.
The All Army Activities (ALARACT) document describes how Army retirees can find and apply for open positions and aims to maintain a sufficient number of personnel to fill all of the Army’s authorized positions.
The message comes as the service has publicly acknowledged struggles to balance a shrinking workforce with the demands of sprawling global mission sets as recruitment woes persist for a third year in a row.
Funny how that three-year thing lines up roughly with Biden’s inauguration. And while this only applies to Army retirees, I’m sure that if the Navy can use drag queens for recruiting, they will invite me back at some point.
But wait, you’re asking, aren’t you too old???? Apparently not!
Any Army, Reserve or National Guard soldier who qualifies as retired or will soon be retired — meaning they achieved at least 20 years of service — and anyone receiving retired pay is eligible to apply, the message states. Neither age nor disability, alone, would exclude a soldier from joining depending on the disability, and they would still have to meet the Army’s health requirements.
“There is no age limitation, although personnel older than 70 are not normally recalled,” the message states.
I’m in!
The Daily Caller continues:
The publication initially sparked confusion and irony among military professionals online regarding the program’s voluntary nature and whether it indicated deeper manning issues….
“The Army does have significant manpower shortages, but they are concentrated at the lower enlistment grades due to the recruiting crisis,” retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr, an expert on defense policy and strategy and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the DCNF. “So I am not sure this particular message does indicate a problem, since retirees are old.”
Ouch, way to kick a guy when he’s down.
Anyway, here’s an X version of me returning to the submarine force:
Me walking into an HQ… 🤭🤭 https://t.co/TrOYGVDJOp pic.twitter.com/5i1WCSqOr9
— Grand Admiral of Propaganda (@TheIOGuy) March 21, 2024
In any case, it is unusual for the military to be looking for retirees, as some on X have noticed:
Biden has completely destroyed our military ~ ~ US Army and Air Force Call on Retirees to Return to Active Duty Amid Recruiting Shortages https://t.co/uhIjNSGOO8 pic.twitter.com/ckiJbubbi4
— Mary (@matjendav4) April 4, 2024
Maybe if the military leadership changed their ways and methods, recruitment would go up?
US Army and Air Force Call on Retirees to Return to Active Duty Amid Recruiting Shortages https://t.co/c6xWcwHxqk #gatewaypundit via @gatewaypundit
— R T (@RDog861) April 3, 2024
Welcome to Biden and Democrat’s New America and you bet China and Russia are watching and waiting! Amid Recruiting Shortages U.S. Army and Air Force Call on Retirees to Return to Active Duty https://t.co/mkfxLJEpPG
— Angie (@angie_anson) April 7, 2024
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Comments
Would someone please explain to me why any retiree with even the smallest iota of comprehension of the total disaster the Biden regime has made of the military would want to go back? Seems to me this whole idea is a non-starter from the first. Am I wrong?
70 year olds are easier to slam to the floor and fall on.
I retired at 25 years. I wouldn’t last one enlistment today.
You are not wrong. Daughter and her husband are counting the weeks to retirement and she says they are not the only ones. Biden has destroyed the institutional knowledge vital to the military leaving a force compromised of 1 or 2 enlistment soldiers. A military can not operate like that
I have been active with the VFW organization (as a widow of a combat vet) for 30+ years, and I wish I had a dollar for every time a vet has told me that his service time was rough and he is glad to be out, but if his country called, he would go back into the military in a heartbeat.
Somehow, I’m thinking this is not what they have in mind…
actually I’m hearing from 100% of vets saying to the younger gen “DO NOT ENLIST”
These are guys who have been shot at and been places where America spilled blood and treasure- some of these guys were portrayed in movies. Their sentiment is America has lost its way.
I would not send my kid in. Starve it.
That would include me. My grandfather’s name is on the wall at the local VFW as a founding member. My step father is a former State Commander and my mother plus sister are for State Auxiliary President’s. I don’t hear a lot of recent vets saying they would go back on short of a direct attack on our soil given what the left has done to our military
The whole opposition to the draft, when it was first instituted, was based in the true militia mindset. Men will volunteer to fight for issues that concern them and that they believe in. Expansionism and some political dude’s bottom line, not so much.
If the military would just end, it’s DERI policies and training, there would be no problems with recruiting.
As it is now, all the southern conservative families who have traditionally filled the military generation after generation are universally, telling their children not to join because of anti-white bias in the military.
Unfortunately not true. Nobody wants to join when they know their bosses were all trained/formed under that DEI system and have the DEI mentality beaten into them. They don’t know HOW to lead a successful military anymore.
When we used to preach about institutional knowledge, tradition, warrior ethos. etc. we meant it. They have largely been wiped out now and rebuilding them is going to take a generation and likely a very bloody war or two that we just might lose.
Commander in Chief has dementia. Explains a lot.
Commander in Chief has dementia? The poor man is eclipsed by dementia! It has advanced to the point where the poor man is basically non-functional.
Joe Biden has turned the USA into a fuckin’ joke.
And there’s not a damn thing that Republicans or the American people can — or will — do about it.
This is how great nations decline.
Jimmy Carter is more lucid.
So is his wife
As well as paying to emasculate service former-men. As well as the whole Navy drag queen thing. As well as there not being anyone in the DoD leadership with a spine when it comes to international policy. The list goes on.
If they offer me Sec Army then ….I’d consider the idea, otherwise oh hell no.
Frankly this is absurd. Any Vet who has any sort of disability and goes back into service is demonstrating that their disability isn’t a bar to service. Unless those Vets get a waiver for whatever VA disability or the disability condition that resulted in their medical retirement by the medical elimination board they are likely to lose any benefits for those conditions b/c they are now obviously not disqualifying conditions.
I doubt they get many takers but those who decide to do it better go with eyes wide open and a hand on their wallet. The ones they do get are likely to be scrubs trying to do enough time to qualify for some missed benefit or otherwise work the system to their advantage.
That is what I’m thinking. If you were retired with a medical discharge and then went back in wouldn’t you lose any disability since you obviously are qualified to serve?
Yep, I don’t see how it can be otherwise without being granted a waiver to serve with the condition.
It is the functional equivalent of the situation where the Physical Elimination Board rules a medical condition is disqualifying for further service and the Service Member argues it isn’t in order to continue to serve. When the Service Member does that and wins an appeal, continuing their service they can’t later on claim benefits for the formerly disqualifying condition b/c that service member argued it wasn’t disqualifying.
I’d be more in favor of this move if retirees were placed into logistical and admin positions and everybody else went into combat arms. But that ain’t gonna happen….
The only reason to put the new woke contingent into combat arms is to purify the Armed Services of them.
This problem can be fixed by canning anyone the Obama & Biden Administration promoted.
Great. So now they are going to have a top heavy force of geriatrics.
Anyone stupid or desperate to return to this Army after surviving 20+ years isn’t going to contribute much to combat readiness. But hey, Biden will get his numbers up. Legitimate or not.
Well, as the old Civil War joke goes, maybe they need a few generals.
*snif* Smells like *snif* desperation.
I’m in San Antonio, a.k.a. Military City USA. We are up to our epaulets in retirees. Every one I’ve spoken to, without exception, thinks this is a massively stupid idea.
For the record, I’m 67, ex-Air Force, RIFed in ’91 after 14 years.
Daughter was just deployed to Europe for 6 months. Got there and spent the time sight seeing. No one had any idea why they were there and there was nothing for them to do until they finally came home. The military is in such a state of confusion no one in their right mind would go back in just to get beat over the head with DEI nonsense.
WHY would anybody want to fight in Joe Bidens military, where he treats you like Dog Poop, and left the border wide open for terrorists to come here?? Let the Tranny’s that are taking it over figure it out. At this point, what difference does it make??
What Is A Warrior?
Why would I want to return to a military that defends a country not willing to protect its own borders, and treats me – a white male – as trash?
Because of the collapsing state of the military, expect coordinated attacks by our enemies to overwhelm us and crush us for good:
a) China invades Taiwan
b) Russia invades the Baltics
c) Iran blocks the Straits of Hormuz (Chinese ships can pass, of course) and the Bab-al-Mandaab around Yemen
d) Hezbollah launces an all out war on Israel.
e) North Korea nukes the South.
I think all those things are possible. But, my sense is ‘B’ is the least likely. Putin has had his fill in Ukraine. He’s lost hundreds of aircraft, MANY of which were 4thGen fighters in addition to two of his Beriev A-50, the Russian AWACs platform (they only have six of them). He’s lost 2K+ tanks and a number of naval assets including the flagship of the fleet. Then there’s the human toll, an estimated 400K (or more) Russian dead. I suspect he has ZERO appetite to test Article 5, ATM…at least not conventionally.
Yeah there’s no way Putin actually goes on a whole hog attack against a NATO member. An asymmetrical attack of cyber, propaganda and/or funding internal dissent via cutouts all to have enough plausible deniability to sufficiently cloud the issue enough to avoid a direct response against a nuclear armed Russia. Maybe.
Russia historically uses all domains to provide a ‘brush back pitch’. Economic, financial, interruption of supplies/goods, propaganda, funding internal dissent are all arrows in their quiver they tend to use BEFORE they engage in direct and overt military action. Unfortunately the foreign policy establishment of the USA is overwhelmingly dominated by neocons who either ignore the series of ‘brush back pitches’ or are incapable of seeing them for what they are b/c they themselves wouldn’t use them, preferring more overt threats/military response and can’t recognize/accept that other Nations leadership might think/act differently than we do based upon their own unique cultural outlook derived from their own historical experience.
On top of that, he doesn’t need to. The West is trying to obfuscate the Ukrainian situation with “Red Menace” style propaganda instead of being honest about how the whole Ukraine imbroglio got set off. It’s way beyond “Russia bad, Ukraine good.”
The career neocons at US State Dept and US Intel agencies are the prime movers with big assist from their UK counterparts in setting up the series of events since the first Bush Admin, steam gained in Clinton era, more broken promises in W Bush era and under Obama they got largely free rein.
I would say that ‘B’ is highly likely – just not as imminent as the others. It is definitely on the Russian agenda somewhere.
Cheers!
Does Russia have a plan to invade the Baltic States? Yep. Does the USA have a plan to invade Mexico? Yep
That’s what a General Staff does; make contingency plans, update the plans to account for current political or economic constraints adjust to account for new technology and the addition or subtraction of of potential allies and enemy coalition. Then dust them off and war game them from time to time.
If you read Ezekiel 38 & 39 there is more action coming than that!
Not enough soldiers? Hey Joe, you always got the draft,….that should go over in an election year
Sssh! That’s step number two!
1) I paid off your student loans.
2) Someday, I will ask a favor of you…
It’ll be a lot easier to fill the military with invaders, anyways. Being willing to wantonly slaughter “rebels” is what our “leaders” want in our military personnel.
I would like to have the contract to supply walkers and rollators for those who might need them.
Then, I want a dress cane, a utilities cane, and camo cane.
As I’ve said before, I’m eight years RegAF, sixteen years AL AirNG. I can’t imagine the AF or AirNG having a place for a 74-year-old official codger except as a paper shuffler and monitor watcher. Just what I need, a job that gives me no exercise.
Ever read “Old Man’s War”? It’s a fun story (except for some of the language which is stupid and unnecessary to the plot) and an interesting concept but it’s not going to happen any time soon.
.
As a veteran, it pains me to say that my once vaunted US Military has transformed itself into the combat equivalent of Dylan Mulveny’s Bud Light.
We are so screwed . . .
And they did it very quickly, starting with the Obamunist purges.
Actually the conservative purges started with Bill Clinton when opposition to “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” marked you as a target for non-promotion.
Getting rid of DEI (Didn’t Earn It) and stop teaching “Whitey is the Devil” could go a long way in correcting the problem.
Love the DEI (Didn’t Earn It) ridicule!
The humiliation of the US progresses; no longer anyone’s friend and an unreliable ally. The US will be driven off the world’s stage in disgrace.
In truth, though, would that be bad? We were warned early on to not get involved in the type of disputes our neocons love so much; that we should focus on being a trading nation. God knows we’ve shed blood all over the world in this or that carnage that we were either dragged into or thought that we could manage.
And what did we get for all that? Ascendancy on the world stage for 80 years, but the near and on-going destruction of our country in the process.
Friend of mine actually wrote a short fiction novel last year on recalling old timers. Now he’s concerned who at the Pentagon is reading his stuff!
James Totten’s Breaching Ain’t Easy Series: Old Heads and Drone Drivers
Out of curiosity I looked up the ALARACT message…
Subject to height/weight standards, and PT, presumably the new combat fitness test.
Your seniority picks up where it left off, and apparently, you’re still promotable, which is…odd.
And deployable.
Sure, deploy this 66 year old to a combat zone…
At 62, I highly resent authority figures. I don’t think I could be of any help. I did go to the Commissary today. When I was going through the gate the Specialist that scanned my ID said he wanted to be like me, “A retired Master Sargent”. He then snapped to and said, “welcome to the Rock of the Marne Master Sargent”.
“Rock of the Marne?” You must have been in the Ft Stewart commissary.
I was there between 84-86, when the 24th ID was there, and Hinesville was a rinky dink Army town.