A few months back and fresh off my second tour of duty in the Middle East, which included 6 months in Iraq (most in Baghdad) I applied for the Army’s  Special Recruiter Assistance Program (S-RAP for short)  As outlined from About.com

The Army has an opportunity for Soldiers to share their deployment experiences with friends, family and community members in their hometown, as they help recruit the next generation of troops. Through the Special Recruiter Assistance Program, or SRAP, eligible Soldiers can serve on temporary duty up to 14 days at the recruiting station nearest their hometown. During that time, Soldiers will work for the recruiting station by assisting with recruiting activities, speaking at college and community events, and participating in interviews with local media

I figure this would a great thing to do, since I knew back then that the Army was going to have a tough time meeting their quotas in the upcoming months.  This was based on conversations I had with some buddies of mine who were recruiters or who had finished up their recruiting duty. Yet there was one catch…… 

The program is open to enlisted Soldiers age 25 or younger in stateside units who have served overseas in support of Operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom. Soldiers currently serving overseas in support of OEF/OIF are asked to wait until their units return stateside to apply for the program.

I qualified for the ladder but the former…. Let me tell you this Ole Sarge will be retiring in about 5 years. Unless I lied about my age to join the Army when I was twelve. I would be 25. But, I figure what heck,  I went on an applied for it anyway… Guess what my answer in an email response was………….

When I had read the response. The first thing I said was “I guess they don’t want Ole Sarge’s help”  Viola Hence the name “Ole Sarge”

Fast forward today.  Ole Sarge is in the process of speaking to various elementary schools and communities around the DC area during his off duty time.  the first will be at Malcolm X elementary school in DC during their career week in my.  My goal is not to sound like a recruiter nor tote military platitudes.  However I tend to be what I call an ambassador for freedom.  Freedom is not free. We all have to make sacrifices to achieve freedom. We as a nation sometimes take freedom for granted. As an ambassador I do serve at the pleasure of my government.  My government issues me a riffle also if you look close I have an olive branch. With that olive branch I extend the freedom.  Just like a baton I will pass it on to the those kids.

Finally in the twilight Ole Sarge will just fade away!

sic vis pacem para bellum

Mike Tyson will fight the much taller Kevin McBride (left) on June 11 at the MCI Center. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Courtesy of Foxsports.com:

The Mike Tyson Show is headed to the nation's capital. The former heavyweight champion announced Tuesday that he'll fight journeyman Kevin McBride on June 11 at the MCI Center - Tyson's first bout in nearly a year. "I just hope these people of Washington, D.C., are prepared to handle this," Tyson said. "It's going to be a train wreck."

Train wreck he says.  I hope it is not during rush hour. Traffic is bad enough as it is. Nevertheless Ole Sarge will skip the fight and take the kids out to the ball park to see the Nationals. There are enough circuses that come to town. I don’t want to see another one when Tyson comes rolling in.

Once you seen one you seen them all.

Governor Robert Ehrlich did lash out at Democratic lawmakers for passing that piece of legislation he feels is unfriendly to business.  As John Wagner of the Washington post writes:

Ehrlich said he was particularly troubled by a bill that would effectively force Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health benefits or make a contribution to the state's health insurance program for the poor. The legislation sent a bad message to the business community, Ehrlich said, and will make more difficult his job of recruiting companies to Maryland.

Ehrlich repeated his promise to veto the bill, which would require companies with more than 10,000 employees in Maryland to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health care or make a contribution to the state Medicaid program. Wal-Mart is the only known company the bill would affect.

Those who support the bill (mainly Maryland democrats) argue that large employers have (Wal-Mart) should pay their fair share of cost since some (not all) Wal-Mart employees are receiving government-subsidized health care.

Shame on the government that doesn’t want to take care of the poor. I thought democrats cared.   

Links:

Old Line Politics

Ehrlich calls bill hostile to business (Washington Post)