“Old soldiers never die,” said Gen. Douglas MacArthur in his famous farewell address to the US Congress in 1951, “they just fade away.”
Or maybe not.
As reported here, the US Army, facing a manpower shortage, is looking to bring back retired soldiers: “The All Army Activities (ALARACT) document describes how Army retirees can find and apply for open positions and aims to maintain a sufficient number of personnel to fill all of the Army’s authorized positions.”
The move comes as the Army acknowledges missing its recruiting targets for the third year in a row, leading to “a shrinking workforce” trying to cope with a “sprawling global mission.”
What is particularly interesting, to us at SuperAging News, is that the Army points out that there is no age restriction, although in practice those over 70 are unlikely to be recalled. Even so, this is an important recognition that the Army is at least open to the possibility of engaging people past the “traditional” retirement age of 65.
We don’t, of course, believe the Army will suddenly be flooded with “older” retirees. The article quotes retired Lt. Col. Thomas Spoehr, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “The Army does have significant manpower shortages, but they are concentrated at the lower enlistment grades due to the recruiting crisis. So I am not sure this particular message does indicate a problem, since retirees are old.”
Even so, they are being encouraged to apply, and it is the attitude shift — the openness to a return to the workplace, and that the Army specifically noted no age limit — that we find so interesting here, and of more significance than what the actual age distribution turns out to be. And who knows? Maybe the Army will discover — or rediscover — some surprisingly robust (and much needed) job skills in the ranks of its retirees.