Marines Try to Recruit 78-Year-Old Woman

Marines Try to Recruit 78-Year-Old Woman
March 26, 2006 9:30 p.m. EST
Denise Royal - All Headline News Staff Writer

Saugus, CA (AHN) – It seems even Uncle Sam makes mistakes. The nice recruiting letter asking her to consider becoming one of “the few, the proud” flattered Sonia Goldstein. But at age 78, she believes she's just a little old to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The letter told her the corps could use her unique language skills, but also warned that life as a Marine would test her physical and mental abilities "beyond anything you've ever known."

"There I am with my walker. I can't maneuver from here to there without it," said Goldstein, who added that her only language is English.

The Marines ordinarily recruit people 18 to 27, said Maj. Joseph Kloppel, a corps spokesman. He said the letter must have been sent by mistake.

"Seventy-eight is obviously too old," Kloppel added.



Ellie