95-Year-Old Grandma Tries to Enlist

By Grayson Kamm First Coast News

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH, FL -- At 95 years old, Peg McIntyre never misses bridge club and volunteers with the Council on Aging. Now, she's trying to join one more group: the United States military.

McIntire's brother was killed in combat before World War II.

"And ever since then, I have tried to live as if he was still here, and to do the things that he would have done," she said.

So Tuesday, she led a squad of six grandmas like her into recruiting offices in St. Augustine.

"We said, 'We're here -- all of us are here -- we came together to enlist,'" McIntire said.

The women offered to take the place of young men and women fighting in Iraq.

"We've lived our lives, we can afford to let them go. So, the theme was: take us instead," McIntire explained.

Uncle Sam politely said, "No."

First Coast News talked with recruiting officers from both the Air Force and Navy. Both branches refused on-camera interviews.

A spokesman for the Navy's local recruiting district, JO1 Eric Dehm, did issue a statement saying the women, "were simply exercising their rights as American citizens to speak to our recruiters and speak to our military about the service."

"But they refused us on the basis of age," McIntire said.

"They were very polite, which was to be expected. But they were adamant. They didn't even have an application form," she added.

But McIntire's not discouraged. She'll keep going to her other groups' meetings -- especially Grandparents for Peace.

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