Man, they are getting
desperate, and we should be very, very concerned about a draft, no matter what statements are made. Granted, this guy is a specialist likely underrepresented in the current roster of military experts, but jeez, he's 68!
At 68, many people are slowing down. Not John Wicks: He's going to Iraq. Wicks, a psychiatrist, has been called out of military retirement by the Army to fill a shortage of mental health experts needed to help soldiers cope with combat. He could be gone as long as a year.
Wicks' latest assignment started with a postcard the Army sent last fall that explained the need for specialists and asked if he felt he was fit to serve.
"I stuck the thing in my pocket and carried it around for several weeks agonizing on how I should respond," he told The Decatur Daily in a story Sunday. "The truth is I consider myself fit to serve, so that's how I marked it and sent it back."
"My wife said 'You'll never hear from them.' Well, it was no time at all till I heard from them," Wicks said.
I suppose he did not have to reply that he was fit for service, but like a true American, willing to give of himself for the sake of his nation, he offered nonetheless. And like is typical when signing up high schoolers, the recruiters mislead the good doctor as to the true nature of his potential assignment.
Wicks said recruiters initially hinted he could go to Europe or a stateside base to relieve a younger psychiatrist who would go to Iraq. The Army even gave him three choices should that scenario play out, and Dr. Wicks chose Italy, Germany and England.
"Well, I now wonder if this was just to get me hooked. Because there's no way I'm going to Italy or any of these places," he said. "I'm going to Iraq."
That, combined with daily news stories like
this make one wonder how far down the rabbit hole this thing will go before we hit bottom and find ourselves a rabbit to follow out...