Older Soldiers Make The Grade

Sgt Blanchett Proves Gray Doesn’t Mean Out To Pasture

There is something to be said when most of the people that surround you at work were in grade school when you first joined the service.  Or those others who you are around each day were not even born when you made your first trip to the Persian Gulf.

Sgt Scott Blanchett has seen it all.  He was reborn as Private Blanchett a couple of years ago, 11 Bravo, General Infantryman.

“Yeah, they called me grandpa, or old man, it was a constant thing.  But it was sort of fun even so,” said Scott Blanchett.   Sgt Blanchett is 42, and now a Sgt in the Infantry.  It was gratifying for Scott when he scored a 283 on the PT part of his physical training.  This was better than the majority of the youngsters who had been calling him “old”.

Sgt Blanchet is part of a new mini wave of deployed former service, or older soldiers who have joined up as part of the Army since rules were changed.  In 2006 the Army extended the time limit to enlist to 42.  The increase in age allowed many soldiers who were prior service, or skilled older Americans to become soldiers, almost as a last ditch effort to avoid growing old.

“You must tell yourself the focus is leadership, and ability, not age,” said Spc Detra Sneed.   Spc Sneed is 42 years old, and another example of the older soldiers that are joining the Army since the rules change.

“Age is not a factor in Good Leaders,” said Sneed.  Sneed is a Combat Medic with Forward Base Kalsu, Headquarters and Headquarters Company. “In the Army you have to be willing and able to observe and follow the structure of rank,” stated Sneed.