Latest recruiting prospect: 80-year-old vet

[unhappycamper]

Latest recruiting prospect: 80-year-old vet
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 2, 2008 10:29:13 EST

Levying record re-enlistment bonuses, the Marine Corps has proven it will do a lot to help grow the force, but trying to recruit an 80-year-old man?

It started with a recruiting brochure in the mail last summer. Then, Wes Alderson, who served in the Army during World War II, received a Marine poster shipped overnight to him from New Jersey.

Now, his friends jokingly ask Alderson of Salem, Ore., where the Marine Corps plans to ship him and when he’s leaving.

Alderson said he wrote a letter to Marine officials to alert them to their mistake. What did he get in return? A post card with a coupon for a free T-shirt. He took a copy of his letter, along with the recruiting paraphernalia, to the local recruiting office to get some answers.

“The Marines there were amused by it, and so they trotted out a T-shirt for me,” Alderson said.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_80yearoldrecruit_071228/