59-year-old returns from combat in Iraq

[unhappycamper]

59-year-old returns from combat in Iraq
By Thomas Geyer - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Feb 26, 2008 10:02:22 EST

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Hubert “Hugh” Pries had a choice in 2001. At age 52, he could have continued to work a 9-to-5 job at his Davenport law firm. Or he could go to the worst crisis zone there was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He did not choose law.

Now 59, Pries recently returned to Bettendorf after completing a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq. He pounded the ground as a combat soldier alongside men and women less than half his age.

~snip~

After intensive training to qualify as a military transition team adviser, he was assigned as the executive officer for Military Transition Team 0200, which was assigned to advise the 2nd Iraqi Army Division in Mosul from February 2007 through January.

Pries was the oldest among 192 people in his unit, and six years beyond the next-oldest guy, who was 53. It is an age when most people are not as fleet of foot as they once could claim.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_59yearold_022608/