OT: Old Soldiers Answer the Call to Arms

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February 16, 2005

 

By Lisa Burgess,

Stars and Stripes, European Edition

 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Old soldiers never die. Sometimes, they don’t even fade

away.

 

" As long as my country needs me — and I can positively contribute — when

the flag goes up, I’ll be there, " said retired Army Col. Emil Zimmerman,

who is 57 and is now waiting to see if he can clear the Army’s medical

requirements before returning to duty.

 

The flag went up in November 2003 for retired Army Lt. Col. Phillip

Ritchey, when facing a critical shortage of eye surgeons, the Army

phoned him with a request: Would you consider putting your uniform back

on and deploying to Baghdad?

 

Ritchey, 69, didn’t hesitate.

 

Baghdad isn’t so different from many of the places where Ritchey and his

wife of 48 years, June, had traveled to volunteer their medical skills,

he said in a recent telephone interview with Stars and Stripes.

 

" My wife and I have been doing volunteer work all over the world, " said

Ritchey, a 1957 graduate of West Point. said. " Baghdad isn’t so bad,

compared to some of the other places I’ve been. It’s definitely not like

Vietnam, " where he spent a year in 1967.

 

The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, prompted a wave of inquiries

from retirees who wanted to serve once again.

 

But it wasn’t until Iraq rotations began to strain the Army and Marine

Corps that the services’ personnel officials began not only to take such

offers seriously, but to actively seek volunteers to fill critical

shortages.

 

The Army has received 12,000 telephone calls and e-mails from veterans

offering to come back to active duty, according to Wayne Maricle, chief

of operations in the Mobilization Operations Division of the Army’s

Human Resources Command, or HRC, in St. Louis.

 

About 2,300 have followed through with formal applications and are

considered " confirmed " volunteers, Maricle said.

 

The Army has returned 357 retirees to active duty, including 286 who are

now serving, according to Don Ashenfelter, chief of the Army’s retiree

mobilization program at HRC.

 

The Marine Corps has 77 older Marines back on duty and is seeking more

volunteers with critical skills who left the Corps within the past five

years, according to Lt. Col. Jeffrey Riehl, the Corps’ plans and

mobilization officer for manpower and reserve affairs.

 

But the Navy and Air Force, which are working to reduce their

active-duty end strength, have chosen not to bring retirees back,

spokesmen for those services said. The Air Force did bring back some

retired pilots beginning in early 2001, the program has been suspended.

 

In December, Army officials decided to actively solicit retirees for a

potential volunteer re-mobilization, instead of waiting for veterans to

initiate the re-entry process.

 

Retirees may be somewhat slower than their younger counterparts, but

they make up in experience for what they may lack in the physical arena,

Zimmerman said.

 

Zimmerman received an e-mail from HRC on Dec. 30, 2004, asking if he

might consider a return.

 

" I said, not only do I volunteer, I volunteer with both hands. "

 

Now Zimmerman is " on pins and needles, " waiting to see if he will be

allowed to re-enter after taking a special hearing test the Army

required because he wears hearing aids.

 

" I’m not in it for the glory or the pay, " Zimmerman said. " I’m in it

because we have troops in harm’s way, and I want to take care of troops. "

 

 

© 2005 Stars & Stripes. All opinions expressed in this article are the

author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com