51-year-old mom holds her own during Basic Combat Training

[Big Don]

[h=1]51-year-old mom holds her own during Basic Combat Training[/h] February 17, 2012
By Melissa K Buckley
army.mil Excerpt:

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Feb. 17, 2012) -- At 9 o'clock this morning, Sgt. Sandra Coast will graduate from Basic Combat Training on Fort Leonard Wood, officially beginning her Army career - at 51 years old.

According to the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the average age for an Army Reserve recruit is about 23, making Coast one of the oldest people to go through Basic Combat Training.

"Everybody in the world thinks I am a total nutcase," Coast said. "I just want to support our troops. I love all of them."

From 1982 to 1993, Coast devoted her life to the U.S. Navy. She gave up her lifestyle as a Sailor to raise her son, Jeff, who ironically led her back to the military she left behind years ago.

"When Jeff graduated high school, he joined the Marine Corps. When I was at the recruiter's office with my son, I walked into the Army recruiting office and said 'I want to join,'" Coast said.

For as long as she can remember she has had a special place in her heart for troops and a hunger to serve.

"I have a friend in the Navy that was emailing me from Afghanistan. It's his third combat tour in seven years. I don't know, I can't explain it, I just had this overwhelming desire to give back to the military somehow. I was doing the same job day after day after day; I can't live my life that way," Coast said. "There is more to life than this, so I ended up in basic training."

She was stunned to learn that as a paralegal specialist she would have to go back to basic training -- this time, Army-style.

"I wasn't quite expecting to be running around with a M16 and all of this gear," Coast said. "This is nothing even remotely similar to being a Sailor. I was blown away by the total difference of it. We carried M16s during Navy Boot Camp, but we never shot them. Here we are shooting several times a week. Shooting this weapon with all of the gear on takes a toll on me."
<<<SNIP>>>
Her 10-week journey from civilian to Soldier was spent in Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Chemical Brigade. Her first sergeant said when he first heard he had a 51-year-old headed his way he was perplexed, "Wow, that's strange," he said.

Now, 1st Sgt. John Byars has a new perception of his elders.

"I was impressed because she can do everything the younger Soldiers do," Byars said. "She never expected us to feel sorry for her. She even got one of the highest Army Physical Fitness Test scores in the company. She is a prime example that age is just a number. She ran faster than Soldiers young enough to be her kids."

Coast even amazed herself when she came in second place during the PT test.

"I am still kind of blown away by that. I even ran faster than all but one female," Coast said.

The APFT may have been a breeze for Coast, but she said one of the hardest things for her to adjust to was the divide in life stages between her and her fellow roommates.

"Everything about basic training is pretty tough, but living with more than 30 teenage females is one of the hardest things," Coast said.
END EXCERPT
Many times since leaving the army I have considered reenlisting. I'm right at the edge of the age limit, and should not read stories like this...

"Everything about basic training is pretty tough, but living with more than 30 teenage females is one of the hardest things," Coast said.

Having had a teenage sister, that sounds like hell on earth...

 

[David43515]

Many times since leaving the army I have considered reenlisting. I'm right at the edge of the age limit, and should not read stories like this...

QUOTE]
Just out of curiosity, what IS the upper age limit?

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Just out of curiosity, what IS the upper age limit?

It's not a hard-and-fast rule, and it's different both for different services and for prior-service versus initial first-time enlistment. The general idea is this.

Any enlistment at any age must serve the needs of that service. If you have a skill that they need, or if it is time of war and they need people period, you may be looked on favorably or be able to get a waiver for age at enlistment. My former landlord enlisted in the US Army as a first-time enlistee at age 42 a couple years back. I met a 50-year-old Corporal (E-4) in the Marine Corps, who had served back in the 1980's, same as me, and had decided to go back in some 20 years later.

You have to be able to meet the standards required. Physical disabilities that occur with age can be accepted for reenlistment of people already in, but would tend to bar initial entry; for example, my diabetes would be a problem for the military now, but one of my nephews was diagnosed with ADHD while he was in and took a pile of pills daily, no problem.

And the military wants to know that if you make the military a career, you can retire with the number of years you have left to you. For example, I have six years prior service, four years of it on active duty. I would need to serve 16 more years on active duty to be able to retire from the military with 50% base pay (you get nothing for 19 years, it's 20 or nothing). I'm 50 now. So if I re-enlisted today, I'd be 66 when I retired with 20 years in. That's one year longer than they prefer. So I probably would not be considered, not just due to my weight and my diabetes, but also because I can't get in 20 years before the mandatory retirement age of 65.

But there are exceptions for everything. If I had some skill the military really needed, they'd make an exception.

One example I remember well was when the USS New Jersey battleship was taken out of mothballs and recommissioned. It had been briefly out of mothballs in Bremerton during Vietnam, but basically it was unchanged since WWII. And nobody knew how to sail it or make it work. Seriously.

So the US Navy put out a call for WWII-era sailors who knew how to sail and operate the guns and other equipment on a battleship and who wanted to put on the uniform again. This was the 1980's, so we had 60-year-old men putting on Navy coveralls and bellies out to here and beards down to there, and they were honest-to-God sailors again; they were real enlisted men holding real rank and drawing real paychecks. It was awesome. I was honored to serve on the recommissioning ceremony of the USS New Jersey is how I knew that. The sailors on deck looked like ZZ Top, I kid you not. But they knew their way around that battle wagon, no problem.

So the short answer is that there is no short answer. Even the 'rules' can be ignored for certain conditions. In general, you have to be able to retire with at least 20 years by age 65, no matter what else. Initial enlistments are generally capped somewhere in the mid to late 30's, but like I said, my former landlord joined for the first time in his 40's just a couple years back.

Hope that helps.

And I can't tell you how many times I wished I was back with my Brothers in the Corps. I have dreamed about it. I actually tried to get back in during the first Gulf Storm, but it was over before my paperwork was even processed. Now I'm too old, too fat, and make too much money to go back to the Suck. But damn I miss it.

 

[Big Don]

Many times since leaving the army I have considered reenlisting. I'm right at the edge of the age limit, and should not read stories like this...

QUOTE]
Just out of curiosity, what IS the upper age limit?

43 for regular (active duty) army, I have no idea what it is for the reserves/national guard.
I'm not sure if I have the temperament for it anymore. I have a lamentable tendency to speak my mind and that doesn't go over well in an enlisted man...