In the quest for bodies the Army is recalling "disabled veterans"

We know the military has been changing the rules of the game as the "war on terror" has frawn down the normal "all volunteer" military we as a nation have relied on since 1974, when the services went to all volunteers.

I was in the Army when the first all volunteer unit, the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington discharged the last of the nations draftees on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in November 1974. They partied like it was New Years eve 1999.......ralkabout parties, it was one of epic proportions.

Now he we are a major war later, and we now have terms like "stop loss" which is in essence a "back door draft" holding men and women beyond their normal term of active duty emlistment of 3 or 4 years. Like most young people they don't read the "fine print" and realize they have just enlisted ofr an obligation of 8 years, and at anytime between the normal End time of Service commonly known at the ETS date and the end of that 8 year obligation the military can recall you to active duty.

Between 1974 and 1991 it was never used, then for the first time during the first Gulf War, they did reactivate a few thousand of Individual Ready Reserves (IRR's) the men and women who had finished their active duty and went home thinking they were done with their military obligation, only to get a letter saying her, "we need you again, some on back or go to jail" and they came back.

Like during the Vietnam era, they pulled the buses up to the post barber shop and took long hair men and within minutes close cropped heads of hair started emerging from the chairs and like Basic Training of old, the men looked shell shocked, muttering WTF am I doing here , "again"? And as the saying goes, "you are in the Army now".

This article in the Buffalo Spectrum brought all these memories rushing back to me this morning:

James Raymond, a senior communications major and UB's Homecoming King, has been looking forward to finishing his last year of college and starting his career. Now, he might be trading in his sash and textbooks for a gun, as the disabled veteran and former editor of The Spectrum has been called back to active duty, scheduled to return to Iraq in September 2008.

  Raymond fought for the Army overseas in 2004, after serving for three years. Raymond was hit by friendly rocket fire at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, resulting in complete hearing loss in his left ear and a case of permanent Tinitus.

  He stayed in Iraq after the incident, tearing the ligaments in his left knee only two weeks later. Raymond was sent back to the U.S. for knee surgery. Four years later, he is still partially deaf and walks with a slight limp.

  Honorably discharged from service, Raymond has been considered a disabled veteran ever since. Now, the Army has called upon him again.

  "Last Thursday, my step-dad got a package in the mail saying I was   being reactivated to active duty," Raymond said. "I thought it was a joke when I first got it. I thought, 'there's no way a disabled veteran is ever going to be called back into the military.'"

  Raymond had in fact been called back to service -- he will need to report to Fort Benning, Georgia on May 18.

Shades of BS, is the Army really getting that hard up they have to recall disabled veterans to active duty to meet the body requirements this war requires?

Now Raymond is not the only disabled veteran called back to active duty for Iraq there is the case of    

According to The Denver Post, former Army Staff Sergeant Jack Auble was redeployed to Baghdad after 20 years of service. Auble was forced to return overseas in January, despite "severe osteoporosis of the spine, bulging discs and compression fractures."

  Auble has a "permanent" profile - something that Raymond wishes he had gotten while he was in the process of being discharged. Veterans are given permanent profiles when their injuries will be permanent and rehabilitation is not an option.

Not only is Staff Sergeant Auble a disabled veteran, he is a retired disabled veteran. With a "bad back" he is not much use wearing 150 pounds of combat gear and body armor, I wonder how many painkillers he carries in his backpack, because if his back is in as bad of shape as mine is, I live on Percocets to make it thru the day, I also have  "bulging disks, herniated disks and compression fractures".

Needless to say in my opinion SSG Auble has no business being in Iraq, let alone back on active duty.

I know this is not going to be popular, but we have how many illegal immigrants in the United States, they want American citizenship, the US Army arranges for soldiers to get citizenship awarded to them after completion of duty in a combat zone. It seems to be a perfect solution, enlist them able bodied  "volunteers" and send them to Iraq instead of disabled veterans who have no business being recalled, and then everyone wins.

Maybe I am being to simplistic, but it would solve many problems at once, bring the undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and turn them into naturalized citizens in return for a few years of active duty, that most Americans won't volunteer for. They could stop the "back door draft" stop reactivating disabled and retired soldiers, veterans who have earned the right to be left alone, at this point in their lives.

I don't know maybe it is just me, but I would much rather have an able bodied 23 year old "immigrant" who wants to be there, rather than have a pill popping disabled vet, who is pizzed off because he has been forced back into a war zone against their will.

If the "principles" can meet in the basement of the White House and approve torture methods, they should have no problem approving this program, at least it isn't in violation of our moral principles and international law, like "water boarding" is.