political : DOES THE US GOVNT BELIEVE THE US HAS ENOUGH TROOPS? IF SO THEN WHY RECALL MEN WHO GOT OUT ON VSI 7 YEARS AGO, WHO ARE DISABLED?! [+] ballot by Duckhead created Wed Nov 17, 04 This is the transcript from CNN this morning. O'BRIEN: The Army is reaching way back to get soldiers to help fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; in this case, seven years back. Major Rick Howell thought he was done with the Army in 1997. Now, at 47 years, they want him back on active duty. Rick Howell is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama for us. Nice to see you, Rick. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate your time. Explain to me what happened after you retired at age 39 back in 1997. You got a telegram saying they wanted you back in. What exactly did it say? MAJ. RICK HOWELL, U.S. ARMY: Basically, my wife, you know, who at that time, was 7 1/2 months pregnant, went to the mailbox, and I was out at our new house site, and opened the mail and called me on my cell phone and said, "You have this little telegram letter in the mail from the Army." And I said, "Well, that can't be true, because, you know, I'm not in the Army anymore." And I said, "Go ahead and open it." And you know, she opened it. And he started crying on the phone. And I said, "Read me what it says." And the first line of the letter says effective 31 July, 2004, you are recalled to active duty. ZAHN: They want you to report to active duty. Have they made it clear exactly where you'd be reporting, what your role would be? HOWELL: Yes, ma'am. The initial report date was 31 August, which was, like, 25 days before the birth of my child. But yes, the report location was Ft. Benning, Georgia, with -- and that was one week there at Ft. Benning to do some initial in processing and then Ft. Rucker for two weeks, basically, and the first National Guard or reserve unit headed to Iraq, you know, I would be assigned to them. And that's it. O'BRIEN: In 1981, you were a commissioned officer. When you retired, the rule is you have to officially resign. Were you aware of that? HOWELL: No, ma'am. I wasn't aware of it. I'm not really retired. I left the military in 1997 under a program called VSI. Basically, they were downsizing the military in an effort to balance the budget. I left the military under that program. And part of that stipulation was I could not come back on active duty. I could not volunteer for the reserves, active reserves or active National Guard. So you know, basically I assumed that if they told me I could not do that, I just assumed -- they said you would be in the IRR. But I asked what that was, and they told me that was just a list of names that they would use to track you from year-to-year and -- but no training, no -- I mean, I didn't get paid, you know, like an active reserve soldier. I mean, I was just on the rolls, as it were. O'BRIEN: Is the issue now that you have not officially resigned, and therefore, you can be open to being recalled for active duty? Is that the point? HOWELL: That -- from what I understand, that's -- that's a big piece of it. I didn't know I was supposed to resign. Nowhere do they tell you that a commissioned officer has to resign their commission. And you know, when you sign that duty form 214, which is basically your exit paperwork, it doesn't state anywhere on there that, if you're a commissioned officer, you have to resign your commission. I just assumed, you know, I was out of the military. O'BRIEN: You filed an appeal. What happens now? HOWELL: I filed an exemption, which was immediately turned down by the military. You know, I told them that, you know, a new father, my parents are aging. I have to take care of them, and I'm also 20 percent disabled. I have a service-connected disability I'm being treated for at a V.A. hospital. So -- and they just rubber-stamped it. They turned down my request for exemption. And the funny thing is I even -- you know, I said, look, if you really need me to come back, although I am disabled and have these issues, I mean, me and my wife had agreed that if you would send us somewhere as an instructor or a logistics planner, we would actually come back for 18 months. And they basically said, "No, we don't want you for that. We only want you for one reason, and that's to go to Iraq." O'BRIEN: We'll see how it ends up for you. Major Rick Howell is now battling it out. HOWELL: Yes, ma'am. O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking to us. Appreciate it. HOWELL: Yes, ma'am. O'BRIEN: At 19 minutes past the hour, similar topic, the military. Back to Jack and a question. CAFFERTY: That's an amazing story, but they have plenty of troops, they say. Right. No need to reinstitute the draft. We've got plenty of soldiers. The guy's been out seven years; he's 47 years old. Come on backdoor draft! Nope, soldiers own fault Ballot #58938 : SEE RESULTS Comment: show your vote with comment?

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