I wonder which of the many soldiers the Army illegally stop-lossed into repeat Iraq tours could have been spared if Holden had skipped his little detour into scrub-dom.

THAT is what you two got out of this post. Awesome! I guess we should go back to talking about 6 mile runs and sneakers.

That Army could attract more recruits by releasing an officer to play ball strikes me as the height of madness. Even more insane is the thought of an officer who would postpone an active duty commitment while his pals are fighting a war. More needs to be known about the Army or DoD officials who endorsed this, by name.

While one may legitimately question DOD or Army policy in this matter I don’t see any reason for a negative splash back on Josh Holden himself who has followed the rules and is honorably doing his duty. Tom’s right, he demonstrates a ‘good attitude’ and is perhaps an officer the Army might consider a keeper.

9th Quarter is Ours!

Since he is a 2003 grad I imagine a few of his classmates have moved on with their lives. The same thing probably happened during the 30 Years War and 100 Years War.

If the war is a sprint, you sprint. If the war is an ultra-marathon or Death Valley to Mount Whitney you need to run at an appropriate pace.

Of way more concern is that as a Capt he hasn't gained the MOS credibility that he should have had he done those deployments as a 2nd lt and 1st Lt.

Some of his classmates are dead, not many. Most of his classmates will leave, not in a flag draped box" Most are leaving because it is time for them to leave. I don't have stats for 2003 but it looks like maybe 60% are leaving over 10 years?

"And more than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had left active duty by this January, the statistics show" Boston Globe 11 APr 2007

Next we can whine about Congressional Fellows or White House Fellows not winning the war. It is only a lucky few, it is run by the Army, and they won't be out of the game long.

Wow...give the guy a break!

Welcome back to the Army! I am happy for the man. Many of his year group would love to have had that option had they the talent to play minor league baseball.
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Well done Josh Holden...it may not be the specific kind of "broadening and diverse" assignments the Army CoS had in mind, but good on you!

getting the gamers to join up (though I still contend in the issue of fairness they should of had people sitting out between rounds doing stupid AARs and rifle maintenance so they'd get a taste of REAL army life.)

This is a head scratcher though. Was the objective to get other famous people to be like "hey I can do that too" and get them to sign up for the Army (taking a page right out of the Scientology recruiting book)? Or was it simply to get people like Holden, to bank on that they wouldn't make it to the pro's (lets face it, the Black Knights aren't exactly renowned for their sports program) and then you'd you have them for 7 years?

I mean the highest profile recruit since Riddick Bowe was Patrick Tillman, and he didn't opt for this program. He just went in, took his SPC rank for his college degree and had at it with 2nd bat.

than some of the commenters today!
Cheers,
Tom

He could have been Caleb Campbell who was promised this opportunity by the Army, which then backed out on the promise.

http://www.faniq.com/blog/Caleb-Campbell-Lions-Draft-Pick-From-Army-Told-To-Report-For-Military-Duty-Instead-Of-Training-Camp-Blog-10475

Of course, Caleb was doubly cursed. He was eventually recruited - and played for - The Detroit Lions. A fate worse than Iraq?

http://www.nfltouchdown.com/caleb-campbell-to-be-the-detroit-lions-2010-edition-of-zack-follett/

Must confess that I'm not too impressed by someone who got a 4 year scholarship to our premier military academy....and then in a time of war chose to gratify his personal ambition by playing pro ball first, before joining his comrades at the front. I'm more impressed by the example of Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart who volunteered for the Army Air Force and flew combat missions over Germany during WW2 (while other stars got cushy jobs representing the military in Hollywood....like a former President).

Arthur Ashe, the tennis player, served two years on Active Duty after ROTC commissioning. While playing, the commentators often referred to him as LT Ashe. He was a fine advertisement for the Army.

West Point football players have received papal dispensation to play pro ball and then went on to complete their obligation. So, they got the Army publicity. However, with the exception of LT Ashe, I doubt that any of these programs impact recruiting. This has nothing to do with any of the people in the programs, it is the lack of empirical data that they have any impact at all. The private sector invests allot of money in focus groups and surveys to validate their advertising. To my knowledge, the Army does not. In fact, Army commercials are absent from my broadcast TV here in NC. However, the home state of the East Coast Marines is saturated with those superb Marine Corps commercials.

Personally, I'm offended by all special duty and seriously doubt the real worth of the flying demonstration teams, marksmanship units, and parachuting teams. Besides, we are at war and I want the best officers possible on the line along with some folks who can shoot.

But, Arthur Ashe sure had class.

Does that name say enough?

This guy was a lieutenant at the SAME time as being a baseball player? It would be bad enough in my mind for the guy to take a break and just be a civilian playing ball before getting his war on, but still being a lieutenant while doing so is adding insult to injury.

What did he do to deserve to be promoted to captain?? Granted, I never took a "captain's exam" before pinning railroad tracks, but jeez...

The Army Marksmanship Unit is the only 'extra curricular' military club that seems to be worth anything to me. They actually bring marksmanship knowledge back to the force. What does the Army boxing team bring to fight?

I'm sorry, but this is just crazy that some of you think its ok for tax payers to pay for a guy to play baseball and then put his ACUs back on when he's good and ready.

Oh and... as someone pointed out, the photo of him illustrates two things: 1) by missing deployments as a PL, he didn't learn that its good etiquette to take your freakin gloves off when shaking hands; 2) this photo looks like it was taken at a FOB....just sayin..

We send young men and women to West Point to GO ACTIVE DUTY and GET IN THE FIGHT, not to play baseball.