Retiree Returns to Serve Country

Retiree Returns to Serve Country

By Army Spc. Aaron Ritter / Army News Service

For some soldiers, one enlistment is enough. Others serve 20 years so they can collect retirement benefits. For one soldier, however, even 20 years was not enough service.

Col. Gerald Griffin, commander of clinical services and the chief of emergency medical services for the 67th Combat Support Hospital, celebrated 40 years April 12, while deployed to northern Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Just because I was almost 62, I did not feel decrepit and felt I wasn’t finished being a soldier yet, Griffin said. It was payback time for all of the privileges I’ve had in this Army……

Griffin, who retired as a brigadier general, was given another opportunity to serve because of a loophole in the regulations that restrict officers from serving after a certain age. General officers are normally released by age 60 but he received a two-year extension and was required to retire at age 62.

The Surgeon General, who was a guest at Griffin’s retirement dinner, said he had overheard that the retirement was not really a retirement and that Griffin was looking for a way to slip around it.

I found out that colonels can stay until they drop dead or get a walker and being a critical medical specialty as an Army trained emergency room doctor, I could stay until age 67, Griffin said. The Surgeon General asked how he could help, and I said three years in Germany would be nice’.

After some negotiation, Griffin returned to active duty as a colonel and was assigned as an emergency physician with the 67th in Wuerzurg, Germany. However, within six weeks, Griffin deployed for four months to Kosovo and in mid-January, he deployed to Iraq.

Griffin said he might have the unique characteristic of having been a colonel twice, and after his second retirement, a brigadier general twice.

This deployment is familiar territory for Griffin. He also served in northern Iraq as part of the first Gulf War in 1991, running medical teams for the Kurds with the British Royal Marine commandos.

Growing up as the son of a supply sergeant non-commissioned officer, Griffin calls himself an Army brat with his evil twin bother, an infantry officer who retired as a lieutenant colonel from the 4th Infantry Division.

Griffin began his Army career when he was drafted in September 1963 and trained as a medic. After serving two years active and two years in the Army Reserve, he was discharged and pursued his doctorate degree in pharmacology. He later taught pharmacology as a professor at the University of New Mexico.

In the meantime, he joined the Army. At age 34, Griffin decided to become a physician and went back to medical school.

One of my biggest challenges was being able to attend medical school while raising three children, Griffin said. Luckily, I was still serving in the reserves and was eligible for the G.I. Bill, so I was able to get the financial support to pay for school and support my family.

In 1978, after serving as an Infantry, Civil Affairs, and a Medical Service Corps officer, Griffin found his home with the medical corps and has been there ever since. Of the 40 years, nearly half were spent in the reserves. During that time, he also worked on and off as a civilian emergency room doctor, as well as with cardiology and family practice groups.

Griffin said his 40 years of service has helped him more fully appreciate how wonderful the soldiers really are, and has also allowed him to see the Army develop into what it is today.

There cannot be any better cross-section of America and I think the soldiers represent the best we have, Griffin said. Today’s soldiers are brighter and smarter, perhaps in a different way, than past generations because they’ve been brought up in the computer and information age.

Griffin said he considers all of the soldiers his children because the Army is his second family, even preceding his marriage, which also celebrates its 40th anniversary in October.

While his role of providing medical care is important, Griffin said he thinks it’s also important to be a mentor for the younger doctors and medics.

The Army doesn’t have enough older folks, Griffin said. There’s nobody around to talk about history or to give perspective.

Griffin said the soldiers like the stories and experience, and are comfortable having someone around who has lived through what they live through, who can share their fears and anxieties.

Looking back, Griffin said he never would have believed he’d be doing it this long when he first started in the military.

It was just something I kept doing and doing, he said. By the time my 20 years were up, I said what am I going to do now?’

As for extending his service for another term

I’m still pretty healthy; good genes and good wine, he said chuckling. Some things I think are critical to anyone’s existence, so it’s always a possibility.

The colonel’s motivation is his ability to laugh at most things. He said he has stopped taking things too seriously and enjoys being able to work with every kind of soldier and personality. He just sits back, relaxes and lets things play out.

If anything comes out of this, I’d say I have a profound sense of gratitude to our nation. It has its warts and wrinkles, but it doesn’t matter because it’s still the best there is, Griffin said. I’m just unbelievably proud to be able to do this.