My sister's fiance is being reactivated.

[xiphias]

He's 42. But he was in the Special Forces, so he has useful skills, and is therefore being called up.

I was just talking to Sibling, and we were commenting that, in all honesty, his brain is far more useful right now than his ability to be shot at, so we're really, really hoping that he's stationed, ideally, stateside as command-and-control, codebreaking, or training, or at least nowhere near the front lines. We thought about how we could get this message to someone, and I pointed out that at least ONE of us has to have our phones tapped.

"Yeah!" she said, "and I'm on a cell phone anyway, so they're definitely listening: his name is XXX XXX XXX, and he's stationed out of XXX XXX XXX, and he's really going to be more useful in a training or control role, so that's what you should do -- it would be a waste to put him on the front lines. Plus, he's got many years of experience as a police officer, so he can help set up that sort of thing, too. See? This is the good part of illegal wiretapping!"

He's 42, engaged to my sister, and has a teenage daughter. He's got a number of years in various police departments, and a postgraduate degree in theology. If they ask him to carry a gun and be shot at, he'll go and do that, and won't even complain about it any more than average, but I hope, for his sake, for my sister's sake, and for the country's sake, that they have a better idea in mind.

Comments

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I have two data points you're not going to like. First, they're using military intelligence battalions on the front lines, and they're making up these battalions with a lot of former special forces types (I know this because a co-worker's son is a former Ranger who took two semesters of Arabic before dropping out of MIT, and he's currently taking the waters near Tikrit). Second, that same battalion has been in-theatre for a while now, so they're going to have to muster a replacement with comparable capabilities soon-ish. I don't know/can't say what those capabilities are, but if he has the relevant background and clearances (or can get the clearances), his ass is probably going to Iraq.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

USAF Combat Controller, Special Forces. Motto, "First In, Last Out."

Pray for him, willya?