By the thousands, soldiers 50 and older are being deployed
Sunday, October 17, 2004
BY ANA M. ALAYA
Star-Ledger Staff
Charles Thomas tended to wounded soldiers on the sweltering killing fields of Vietnam, helped hurricane victims in Honduras and oversaw finances for soldiers in Bosnia.
Sometime in the next few weeks, the 58-year-old Army National Guard command sergeant major will leave his wife, Jeanette, their 11-year-old Maltese, Pebbles, walk through the door of his Old Bridge home one final time and head to Iraq.
"I don't want to leave my wife, but I have to go," Thomas said during an interview last week at his house, which the couple is selling. "I made her a deal. I promised her this is my last tour of duty, and she gets a new house."
Thomas is among a group of soldiers age 50 and over being called to active duty . Like many, he is a "citizen soldier," a member of the National Guard or Reserves, where soldiers serve part-time. They tend to be older than their active-duty counterparts and are increasingly being deployed overseas to augment active-duty troops.
Of the 160,000 men and women deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 4,119 are 50 or older. At a time in life when most people are looking forward to retirement or eyeing Florida real estate, these soldiers are leaving behind corporate jobs and grandkids. Some even voluntarily postpone military retirement to go to war.
"The hardest part about going," Thomas said, "is when my granddaughter asks me why I'm not going to be home for Christmas."
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