Marines Try to Recruit 78-Year-Old Woman

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Associated Press | March 25, 2006

SAUGUS, Calif. - Sonia Goldstein was flattered by the nice recruiting letter asking her to consider becoming one of "the few, the proud." But at age 78, she believes she's just a little old to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps.

"I couldn't believe it," Goldstein told KCAL-TV on Friday. "My girls were sitting here ... we were in hysterics, we laughed so hard."

The letter told her the corps could use her unique language skills, but also warned that life as a Marine would test her physical and mental abilities "beyond anything you've ever known."

"There I am with my walker. I can't maneuver from here to there without it," said Goldstein, who added that her only language is English.

"I'll do whatever I could for this wonderful country we live in," she said. "But you know, this is kind of stretching it a bit."

The Marines ordinarily recruit people 18 to 27, said Maj. Joseph Kloppel, a corps spokesman. He said the letter must have been sent by mistake.

"Seventy-eight is obviously too old," Kloppel added.

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