These Seabees Are Veterans But Don't Call Them 'Grandpa' 4/28/2003
Doug Harrington and Glenn Woodmansee, two old salts at the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Engineering Group's forward staging area in Iraq, harken back to the Seabees' early days. In World War II, 325,000 skilled tradesmen enlisted for the military's combat construction force. Their median age was 38, roughly double the median age of the typical recruit.
The pair of construction engineers with Seabee Maintenance Unit 303 widens the gap even more: Harrington is 49 and Woodmansee a feisty 53. His helmet cover inscription warns: "The first one who calls me Grandpa, I'll kill."