An interesting article in The Globe this morning on the recruitment of older folk, in large part established professionals, for the Canadian military:
“In the last two years, our strategic intake plan has been heavily dominated by the combat arms,” says Captain Holly-Ann Brown, a spokeswoman for Canadian Forces Recruiting. “Are there people over 25 applying for combat arms? Sure. But, typically, the person coming to the military looking for a career in combat tends to be out of high school.” As a result, the average age fell to about 24 last year – still closer to 30 than the minimum entry age of 17 for full-time service. Older service men and women can be costly in terms of benefits, and there is also the dicey issue of whether they can hold their own with the young and spry. Yet military data indicate that nearly one-quarter of the 2,596 troops currently serving in Afghanistan are older than 40. More than a third are younger than 29.
That is quite the thing. I thought when I heard of Trevor Greene‘s decision to serve and subsequent injuries that his enlistment was maybe a rare thing. But recently learning of another Kingsman of my era, Stephen Murray, being out there building roads and other good things in the reconstruction team gave me some inkling that there were more than you might assume.