85-Year-Old Seattle Woman Recruited By Marines

[icymist]

85-Year-Old Seattle Woman Recruited By Marines

October 13, 2005

By Bryan Johnson
SEATTLE - A Seattle woman who has been an anti-war crusader for the peace for the past 58 years is being recruited by the Marines.

It is apparently all a mistake.

Barbara "Bobby" Mercer got a letter from Brigadier General W.E. Gaskin, the commanding general of the Marine Corps.

It says: "Now is the time to put your unique language skills to the test as a member of the United States Marine Corps. Your command of the Arabic language will be invaluable..."

(more)
http://www.komotv.com/stories/39728.htm

[Lithos]

1. LOL

Hilarious.

L-

[CatholicEdHead]

2. They must be REALLY desperate. ;)

[A Simple Game]

3. It is apparently all a mistake.

Apparently? Seems obvious to me!

[Mabus]

9. not just a mistake "another huge Bush goof-up"

full paragraph reads: "Lyle Mercer said of his reaction to the letter: "My first reaction was there must be some sort kind of another huge Bush goof-up to be recruiting an old, retired veteran." He quickly corrected the reference to "old" with the word mature. He and his wife both laughed.?

:rofl:

[joemurphy]

4. She's at her gym as we speak, toning up for her

her rigorous Marine physical.

[Akoto]

5. Here's Ms. Mercer, post-training.

:evilgrin:

[cwydro]

8. i thought that was Harriet Miers

sick and tired and not going to take it anymore...:P

[CelticWinter]

6. o good grief

and these are our finest at work......now wonder we are in deep doo doo

[FloridaPat]

7. They had a 60 year old woman over in Iraq in the reserves.

I wonder if joing up will cut tax SS benefits?

[mseang]

17. Old Folks in Germany

We are currently stationed in Germany and a large number of the reservists serving here are very old. My wife has served for almost twenty years in the military and some of these reservists are old enough to be her parents. Seeing 60 year old reservists here is the norm.

[El Supremo]

10. Semper Senis! n/t

[Sabriel]

11. Hey, my dad's only 76!

If they're looking for a former F-86 pilot. Bad knee and back, though. Will that be a problem?

[nigelthebrit]

13. Perhaps a more appropriate aircraft...

...would be the Brewster Buffalo;-)

[SoCalDem]

12. Soldiers need cookies & story-time

:)

[Blaq Dem]

14. And so does George Bush

Maybe that old lady can tell him when he can go pee pee. lol

[nigelthebrit]

15. The Marines aren't good enough...

...for her! If Bobbie wants physical fitness, she should join the Royal Green Jackets (what we used to call the Rifle Brigade). When they march, they do it at 140 paces a minute!

[mseang]

16. Recruitment...

This is nothing, my wife gets recruitment letters from the US Army at least once a month for the Nurse Corps. The funny thing is, she will have served 20 years in the US Army Nurse Corps as of March 31, 2006.

Unbelievable. Of course it does provide us with one laugh each month.

As a side note, she received a letter asking her to recommend someone for West Point this year. This would tell me that applications are down at this institution, because this process is usually very competitive. Are they having to recruit people to attend the service academies now?