"Set to retire, the last Army draftee ‘loves being a soldier’" by Associated Press / July 4, 2011
FORT BELVOIR, Va. - Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger, 58, was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, and the Army believes he is the last draftee to retire, after 39 years. Most did their two years and left.
Mellinger is grateful he found his calling....
When the draft notice arrived in the mail in 1972 at his home in Eugene, Ore., tens of thousands of troops had been killed and antiwar protests were rampant. The return address on the letter was the White House. Just 19, he was impressed that President Richard Nixon would write to him. “I opened it up and it said, ‘Greetings from the president of the United States.’ I said, ‘Wow, how’s he know me?’ ’’
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He was sent to ground zero in New York right after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Is he sick like the first-responder heroes?
Then came his time as the top enlisted soldier of the multinational forces in Iraq, where he says he survived 27 roadside bombings during his deployment of nearly three years straight.
Lucky him.
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Also see: Stowaway scorpion stings Ore. man on flight
