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Soldier reaches 40 years, keeps on serving

May-17-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

[Link to Full Article]
By Spc. Aaron Ritter

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, May 14, 2004) -- For some Soldiers, one enlistment is enough. Others serve 20 years so they can collect retirement benefits. For one Soldier, however, even 20 years was not enough service.

Col. Gerald Griffin, commander of clinical services and the chief of emergency medical services for the 67th Combat Support Hospital, celebrated service anniversary for 40 years April 12, while deployed to northern Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Just because I was almost 62, I did not feel decrepit and felt I wasn’t finished being a Soldier yet,” Griffin said. “It was payback time for all of the privileges I’ve had in this Army.”

Griffin, who retired as a brigadier general, was given another opportunity to serve because of a loophole in the regulations that restrict officers from serving after a certain age. General officers are normally released by age 60 but he received a two-year extension and was required to retire at age 62.

The Surgeon General, who was a guest at Griffin’s retirement dinner, said he had overheard that the retirement was not really a retirement and that Griffin was looking for a way to slip around it.

Amazing.


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