Re: Ukraine's soldiers

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

Well, isn't 60 the new 40?  Besides, what physical abilities do you need
to fly drones from a bunker?

 > From: Noelle <noelle>
 > Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2025 12:41:39 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 > Kind of interesting, after we were talking about how old soldiers 
 > should be:
 > D.O. in Eastern Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, writes: I'm a former 
 > soldier and journalist who earned a paramedic certification and 
 > decided Ukraine needed my help more than my local fire department 
 > did. So, I left my cat with a friend, packed my stethoscope, and 
 > went to Ukraine as what I assumed would be a relatively elderly 
 > civilian medic (I turned 50 a couple days ago) among a sea of young 
 > fighting-aged men in their physical prime.
 > 
 > What I found is that I am squarely in the middle of the age bracket. 
 > Most of my patients have been men aged 45-55, often overweight, with 
 > all the chronic health problems common to our cohort. These men are 
 > buck privates, at an age a decade past when most people retire from 
 > the United States' armed forces.
 > 
 > Russia is scraping the bottom of the barrel to recruit 
 > money-motivated troops barely one step above being mercenaries (and 
 > it shows), while Ukraine is drafting mostly older men who are highly 
 > motivated to protect their families and farms (or to re-acquire 
 > their farms from Russian occupation). Many have sons that would make 
 > up the bulk of the fighting force in the west, but there is 
 > apparently a significant effort to keep them OUT of the military, as 
 > they are expected to be the future of the country (and to be parents 
 > to the future's future).
 > 
 > Of the people under age 35 that I see, around 20 percent are 
 > women—mostly in "high-value target" roles such as field medic or 
 > drone operator positions. They are, to put it bluntly, utter 
 > badasses.
 > 
 > It's a fascinating change from the makeup of the Army when I was a 
 > teenage soldier in the 1990s.