By Thomas Geyer – The Associated Press
DAVENPORT, Iowa Hubert Hugh Pries had a choice in 2001. At age 52, he could have continued to work a 9-to-5 job at his Davenport law firm. Or he could go to the worst crisis zone there was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
He did not choose law.
Now 59, Pries recently returned to Bettendorf after completing a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq. He pounded the ground as a combat soldier alongside men and women less than half his age.
It was the best time of my life, and the worst, he said.
Pries trained Iraqi fighters and battled al-Qaida and other insurgent groups.
After intensive training to qualify as a military transition team adviser, he was assigned as the executive officer for Military Transition Team 0200, which was assigned to advise the 2nd Iraqi Army Division in Mosul from February 2007 through January.
Pries was the oldest among 192 people in his unit, and six years beyond the next-oldest guy, who was 53. It is an age when most people are not as fleet of foot as they once could claim.
No joke, he said, adding with a chuckle. But Im in shape. Round is a shape. I had to be the oldest guy in a combat role on the ground.
To get back in the Army, Pries said he had to complete an application for reinstatement to active duty, get a medical form signed and then submit a security packet that was 20 pages deep. It took longer to gather the information than for them to process it.
NOTE: And if I might add my own 2 cents worth to this story, my former CO came back from Iraq about 4 months and he was 61. So when you think of vets, just remember it’s not always somebody under 25 out there pounding the ground on behalf of the USA. Plenty of older guys are over there doing their part too. Jack