My fifty year-old uncle was back-door drafted.

[angrycarpenter]

His father was army, retired after 20 years, so my uncle practically grew up in the military. He joined the Army when he was 17.

He spent 16 years in the Army most of them stationed overseas. He went to every army training school he could go to. He went to the first Gulf war where he received the bronze star. He had several hundred jumps and was a Ranger. Soon after they came back from Kuwait he was put out before he could advance and retire, he was E-6. By the way Kuwait offered to give everyone who served over there $1000 dollars each, the army refused and then threw thousands of them out on their asses. A thousand dollars would have come in handy.

He was put into a program that I think is called individual ready reserve. In return for some sort of yearly check, he remains ready to be called up on short notice in the event of a national emergency but he never has to report for drills.

Just before Christmas last year he received a letter telling him that he was to report for duty in 5 weeks. He had been out of the Army for 17 years. We were all dumbstruck to say the least.

He has three children who have all gotten married and left the house. He had just purchased a small wooded lot on which he was going to build a modest little house to live in after he retired. He has worked so hard to build his family business over the last several years and has much to be proud of. The army has put all of that in peril because they need another sergeant.

He managed to get an extension for 90 days. There was no discussing the matter with them, he will report or they will come get him. His new report date? Easter Sunday.

He reports as ordered to a nearby base where he was sent to another base and then another and finally to another. He was told that after a short training period that he would be sent to Afghanistan. We all said "well at least it is not Iraq". They let him come home for leave this last weekend but before he left they told him that his orders have been changed, That now he was going to Baghdad.

They have jerked him around like a second-hand G.I. Joe in the hands of a demented 9 year-old.

Just a short 5 months ago he would have laughed at the thought of being called back to the military. It sounds ludicrous that they would want to reactivate a 50 year-old with bad knees to be a sergeant.

I wrote several congressmen who sit on various military committees about the situation but all I got in reply is that since I or my uncle do not live in their districts or states that they could do nothing about it and referred me to his or to my congressman (we live in adjoining states). Thanks for nothing.

I want to hear someone tell me how this is a good thing. The Army is using up the soldiers that are for the last resort defense of our nation in the event of a terrible crisis. They yanked him out of a good life that he has worked and slaved to build since the army told him to get lost 17 years ago. They pulled a bait-and-switch on him and are about to put a man who cannot even pass the army PT test in the middle of the most dangerous city in the world.

It is forbidden to give the PT test to these men as a repeated failure would mean discharge. They could have shot up in the air and still re-qualified on the M16. Eyesight and hearing do not seem to be an issue. They are not giving these men the opportunity to challenge their confinement.

This is a gigantic insult to a man who served his country in a war with valor. Pray for him, pray for us all.



:patriot:

[Berry Cool]

1. I am. Believe me, I am.

This is just unbelievable.

Someone should compile a bunch of these back-door draft stories to show what kind of absurdity is going on.

[TomInTib]

3. A bit of clarification.

The guy is/was a Ranger.

Even tho they rank pretty low on the totem pole of Special Forces, they are still SF.

Eligible until the young age of 62.

They would have to come get me.

[TomInTib]

2. Ranger? He is eligible for call-up until the age of 62.

Trust me, I know.

They would have to come get me.

[melody]

4. The monsters running this country are bullies

They don't care what they do to the people who've served the country -- they'll do whatever they have to do to get what they want. Which is why we must make sure the GOP goes away for a long, long time.

What a horrible thing to do to someone like your uncle -- or anyone for that matter.

[bbinacan]

5. I feel for your Uncle but,

he is in the reserves and can be called to duty. I know it sucks, but that's what he signed on for. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine. He's now in Baghad leading a fire brigade. He is 44 years old.

[angrycarpenter]

6. Sucks is an understatment

He was told that he would only be called up in a widespread national emergency like us being invaded, or civil unrest, or a big disaster. The only emergency is the damage this will do to his family, the only disaster is the presidency of George W. Bush.

[AwakeAtLast]

7. Unfortunately he believed them.

Recruiters are still telling prospective recruits that they will not end up in Iraq. It is too bad the military cannot be as honorable as the people who serve in it!

:hug: I will pray for his safety and swift return.

[tbyg52]

12. *Technically* it is legit

but it sucks in so many ways nevertheless. First, he was kicked out before he could retire at 20. Then he was left alone for a number of years. Then BushCo broke the military. Now they want him back, presumably no matter what age he is or what shape he's in. Yes, it's technically legit, but it wouldn't have happened if BushCo wasn't so f***ed up.

[deadmessengers]

8. How the hell can they do that?!?!

"He was put into a program that I think is called individual ready reserve. In return for some sort of yearly check..."

"He had been out of the Army for 17 years."

Ok, while I feel for your 50-year-old uncle, these 2 statements don't really make sense. Are you saying that he was in the IRR, but hasn't been in 17 years? In other words, he hasn't been sent that yearly check? If that's the case, then that's some SERIOUS bullshit right there - I'd be calling every news outlet in the US on that one.

On the other hand, if what you're saying is that he's been off Active Duty but in the Individual Ready Reserve for the last 17 years, then he actually HAS been in the Army (albeit Army-super-lite), and he should have been prepared for something like this to happen. That's the deal - they pay you a pittance, and you agree to sign your life away.

Can you clarify what's really going on here?

(In either case, it shows just how thinly-spread the military is right now - if they're scraping so low to the bottom of the barrel that they need to call up a man that should be thinking about retirement, that speaks VOLUMES about the state Shrub has driven our military into)

[chill_wind]

9. They started this in 2004. That's the first I began hearing of it.

I remember seeing a few stories of people really up there in their years. I think for a while there was a call especially for medical people. Also remember reading accounts of people not having read the fine print and weren't even aware they could be called back up. About 40,000 of them have been out of touch so long the military doesn't even have their addresses any more.

You're in the Army Now (and Forever) (Slate)
By Brendan I. Koerner
Tuesday, June 29, 2004, at 4:55 PM ET

The U.S. Army is planning to call up close to 6,000 reservists, who will likely be shipped off to Iraq or Afghanistan later this year. Many of the troops will be drawn from the Individual Ready Reserve, which was last tapped en masse more than a decade ago during the first Gulf War. What is the Individual Ready Reserve, exactly, and why is it so seldom used?

The IRR is comprised of former full-time soldiers who still have time remaining on their military commitments. When Army hopefuls sign their enlistment contracts, they are agreeing to an eight-year stint in the service. After four years or so, soldiers who do not wish to become lifers are given discharges and return to the civilian world. But they're still on the hook as IRR reservists and are supposed to keep the Army apprised of their whereabouts.

Unlike members of the Selected Reserve, who drill consistently with an organized unit, soldiers in the IRR aren't required to attend training, nor are they attached to a specific unit. In fact, many IRRists aren't even aware that they're in the reserves at all. But whenever the president sees fit, these troops have to answer the bell. Title 10 of the United States Code gives the president the authority to muster 200,000 reservists whenever "it is necessary to augment the active forces." Of that 200,000, who must serve for a period of 270 days, no more than 30,000 can be members of the IRR.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.slate.com/id/2103118/


According to here, only about 51% called up have reported
This info here is pretty sparse. (The DOD has probably been all over the site, keeping it nice and neat.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Ready_Reserve


He can't get a deferment of any kind? We are not the same people at 50 or 62 that we were at 17.

[OneBlueSky]

10. (mis)using the National Guard, the Reserves, and the IRR was the ONLY way . . .

BushCo could conduct their illegal and immoral wars without resorting to an outright draft . . . what they have done is unethical and irresponsible since it has greatly weakened national security so that Bush could conduct his oil wars unimpeded . . .

Bush, Cheney and the rest should have been impeached years ago, but the Congress is nothing but a bunch of gutless enablers who care only about their own re-election and the continuing flow of corporate dollars to their campaign funds . . . thanks to BushCo and their Congressional fellators, our government may well be the most dysfunctional of any large nation in the history of the planet . . . and it ain't gettin' any better . . .

[unhappycamper]

11. Stop-loss is the top story on Army Times today:

Stop-loss likely to last into fall 2009

[rakeeb]

13. hard to believe, but hardly without precedence

"He was put into a program that I think is called individual ready reserve. In return for some sort of yearly check, he remains ready to be called up on short notice in the event of a national emergency but he never has to report for drills."

The IRR has no pay, benefits, or obligations to drill.

Seeing as how your uncle saw 20,000 IRR called up for Desert Storm when our active duty forces were twice the size they are now, it might hae been a good idea to leave the IRR anytime between 2002 and 2007, especially if he is self-employed.

[rakeeb]

14. I just realized why your uncle was receiving an annual check

he wasn't "just" IRR, he was IRR in the VSI/SSB program.
When he got out in 1992, he had the choice of three years in the IRR to collect a lump sum Special Separation Benefit; or spend twice as long in the IRR as he had on active duty to collect annual installments that would eventually add up to a much larger sum, in your uncle's case that would have been a 32 year commitment to the IRR (quite the gamble considering th 20,000 IRR that had just been called up a year before this happened).
The f*cked up part is that he was probably also offered the chance to reclassify into a noncombat arms MOS in 1992, since he was probably an 11B and the VSI/SSB was part of an overall program to bring the active Army down from 18 infantry divisions to 10. He could have done 4 years in a second MOS and retired in 1996 with regular retirement benefits.
I knew a few guys that were offered this in 1992 and just couldn't bring themselves to do a job in the Army that wasn't infantry.
(The Marine Corps went through the same thing in their 1992 drawdown).

But having a Ranger tab and combat experience would have made his records look pretty attractive on the IRR rolls for call up.

[jody]

15. Thanks for posting. n/t