Octogenarians of America, your country needs you

I realize that the military has a personnel problem, and I can understand why recruiting goals aren’t being met throughout the armed forces, but this is just embarrassing.

The last time Dr. Floyd Baker served in the U.S. Army, Harry S. Truman was president, Dinah Shore’s “Buttons and Bows” topped the music charts, “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” won an Oscar and the bikini made its debut on American beaches.

So the 84-year-old semi-retired dentist from Philadelphia was a little surprised last August when he got a letter from a local Army recruiting station inviting him to re-enlist.

“I was honorably discharged in 1948,” said Baker, who was drafted in 1946 and left the Army with captain’s bars on his shoulders. “I thought the letter belonged to somebody else, knowing when I got in the Army and when I got out. I thought it was a mistake.”

Baker’s assumptions, however, were put to the test when the Army sent a second letter, offering him a $30,000 signing bonus, a $58,646 loan-repayment option and a “generous retirement plan” to re-up.

Help the soldiers “on the front line fighting the war on terrorism,” it said. “Among the difficulties facing them are receiving adequate dental care prior to being sent to areas of danger and conflict. Our soldiers are sacrificing so much for us and we would greatly appreciate the services of fine professionals like you.”

If we really need Floyd Baker, we’re in big trouble.