Keith Whaley wrote:
This is a miss conception, think about this, what was the average life expectancy of a blacksmith in the middle ages? Answer 64, wow that's amazing, being a blacksmith must have been healthy work. Not really it seems that the average age of death of most professionals was between mid 60's and mid 70's. What is the common denominator in every professional? They survived childhood. If you drop out child mortality the average lifespan shoots right up so a 40 year enlistment while long isn't impossible especially in times of peace. True most retirements were short, 5 years, assuming you joined up at age 20 but adulthood is a slippery thing, most time periods considered you to be adult at 16.
Graywolf wrote:
A term that became prevalent in Vietnam. But it actually dates from the Roman Legions where what a guy expected from his 40 year enlistment was to acquire a farm and live happily ever after. By extension it came to mean he got out of the army by dying.
That was back when the male life span was something between 38 and 45?
A forty year enlistment? What did Mom do, drop him off on the Legion's doorstep, umbilical cord and all, and head off into the fields?
Boy. I'm going to have to read up on that!
keith
Cotty wrote:
On 29/10/04, Graywolf, discombobulated, unleashed:
Flat on it's back. Feet in the air. Belly up. Out to lunch. Bought the farm. DOA. Etc.
Bought the farm?!
Cheers, Cotty
--
I can understand why mankind hasn't given up war. During a war you get to drive tanks through the sides of buildings and shoot foreigners - two things that are usually frowned on during peacetime.
--P.J. O'Rourke
