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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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 Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:48 am Post subject: 53 and ready to serve her country |
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God bless her!
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/columnists/tommy_tomlinson/12251418.htm
| Quote: | Rebecca Tomsyck wore a pink dress and pearls to take the oath.
She has an old back injury and a knee she messed up in high school.
She stands 5-foot-2.
She's 53 years old.
On Thursday, she joined the Army.
We'll stop here, let that sink in a second.
Here's more: Tomsyck (say it TOM-sick) is a Charlotte psychiatrist. She's had a practice here for 18 years.
She is giving it up for three months of training and four years of commitment to an army in the middle of a war.
She had her swearing-in ceremony at St. Gabriel Catholic Church. Friends and family leaned in extra hard on the prayers.
One friend hugged her and said: "Holy catfish."
"Every once in awhile," Tomsyck says, "I do look around and think, `How did this happen?' "
Here's how.
Go back about a year. Tomsyck's practice was fine. Charlotte magazine would soon name her one of the area's top doctors. For years she'd felt she was exactly what she was supposed to be.
But she started itching for more. She wasn't sure what that meant, except that she needed to serve her country.
She had kept the card of an Army recruiter she'd met at a conference. The recruiter was interested in her son, Jay, a student at Virginia Military Institute.
She called the recruiter and said: How about me?
Anybody who enters the Army has to be fit, but the physical requirements for the medical corps aren't always as strict.
The age cutoff is a little vague -- the Army's Web site says 46, a recruiter Thursday said 52. Either way, doctors and nurses who are older can get in through waivers.
Tomsyck had to sign a stack of forms as thick as a magazine and take the Army physical for women. Including the pregnancy test.
Because of her experience, she's starting as a lieutenant colonel. In a month or so she'll report to Fort Sam Houston in Texas for officer training. Then she expects orders to one of the Army bases in Germany. Her husband, John, will go with her.
She asks him at least five times a day: Am I doing the right thing?
He answers: Absolutely.
She supports the war but says she's not a hawk. It's unlikely that she'll end up in Baghdad or Guantanamo Bay, but she knows it's possible.
She wrote an essay to explain her thoughts: I am ready to come forward and take a new oath to begin a new chapter in my life. ...
On Thursday she took the oath. The whole thing didn't last 10 minutes. She posed for pictures with her family and her pastor. She waved to her friends who were out in the pews staring at her, still not sure this was real.
Her husband and son pinned silver oak leaves -- the lieutenant colonel's insignia -- to her shoulders.
She went to hug her friends and the oak leaves fell off. She couldn't get them to stay on.
"Lot to learn," she said. |
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:45 am Post subject: |
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What a great American! What a country!
_________________
Defender of the honor of those in harms way keeping us out of harms way.
"Peace is our Profession"
Strategic Air Command - Motto
USAF 75-79 Security Police |
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blue9t3
Admiral
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 1246
Location: oregon
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| Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 5:22 am Post subject: |
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She'll end up in gut'mo talking to the scumballs! big waste of talent. 
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MOPAR-BUYER |
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| blue9t3 wrote: | | She'll end up in gut'mo talking to the scumballs! big waste of talent. |
Yes, the goverment does make mistakes. I wanted to sign up to be a US sky marshall in the wake of 9/11. I thought the four years of security training I received in the Strategic Air Command might count for something. But I guess 43 is just to old to ride around in air planes and look for bad guys.
CWV
_________________
Defender of the honor of those in harms way keeping us out of harms way.
"Peace is our Profession"
Strategic Air Command - Motto
USAF 75-79 Security Police |
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