Repack’s friend could still very well be someone who hasn’t reupped yet seeing as we’re 5 months out from that date.

Nope. Repack is slinging bullshit. There is no way in hell that a USAF Tsgt who enlisted or reenlisted prior to 9-11 (let alone “long before 9/11″) is still an active member of the USAF, or its reserve components, at of today. None. Zero. If this person is still in, they have executed at least one reenlistment or voluntary extension since 9-11.

So, by your own admission, Repack’s friend could still very well be someone who hasn’t reupped yet seeing as we’re 5 months out from that date. Or alternatively could have signed up before and just recently ended her enlistment. I could see how the past several decades without full scale wars would have led someone to believe that signing up in 2000 wouldn’t mean having to go through stop-loss. Proof of that would be the difficulty recruiting over the past few years, something I would assume you have intimate knowledge of.

So what, because she volunteered she can’t be ecstatic to see her kid?

I have a friend who is an NCO (E-6) in the AF Reserve, and when she signed up long before 9/11 she didn’t expect to do four tours of Afghanistan.

Have to call bullshit on this. She might have initially signed up prior to 9-11, but we’re now seven and a half years past that date. Since everyone’s initial enlistment is a maximum 8 years your friend has likely reenlisted at least once since 9-11. She made the choice to remain in the service fully aware of what was going on in the world. As of 9-12-2009 there will be no one in any of the services who has not enlisted or reenlisted without knowing what was going on in the world.

Is there an indication that she is Regular Army, or a reserve on her fourth or fifth tour?

I have a friend who is an NCO (E-6) in the AF Reserve, and when she signed up long before 9/11 she didn’t expect to do four tours of Afghanistan. She thought she would be providing support for national emergencies, or at worst she might have to do ONE foreign tour in a reserve capacity. She didn’t “volunteer” for stop-loss, that’s for sure.

One weekend a month, my ass. Glad I got out of the Army when the getting was good.

Did you intend to Goatse .cx your readers?

Sometimes it’s impossible to believe that we deserve this planet.