This is how desperate we are...

Surgeon, 70, back in Army

Retired Colonel ordered to Afghanistan

Dr. John Caulfield thought it had to be a mistake when the Army asked him to return to active duty. After all, he's 70 years old and had already retired -- twice. He left the Army in 1980 and private practice two years ago....

But then the orders came for him to go to Afghanistan.

Today, Caulfield, a colonel, is an example of how the continuing demands of keeping ground troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are straining the military, and forcing the various branches to go to extraordinary measures to keep the ranks filled. He's attending to patients -- U.S. troops, Afghan soldiers and civilians – at the Army's 325th Field Hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan....

--Florida Today

A couple of days ago Barbara O'Brien at the Mahablog made note of a Washington Post story about the return to active duty of seriously wounded soldiers (e.g., soldiers who'd lost limbs) -- but those soldiers are said to be volunteers, soldiers and marines who aren't ordered to return to return but want to get back in action and think their prosthetics will allow them to do so. This Florida story strikes me as worse -- we're (essentially) drafting septuagenarians?

(Link via esryle.com.)