Best Defense

The last draftee

I came across him yesterday. He is Jeffrey Mellinger, command sergeant major of the Army Materiel Command, and a bigtime Iraq vet. He was conscripted in 1972. As far as is known, he is the last draftee on active duty. He also has jumped out of perfectly good airplanes 3,700 times. Maybe Clint Eastwood will ...

| January 22, 2009, 4:05 PM

I came across him yesterday. He is Jeffrey Mellinger, command sergeant major of the Army Materiel Command, and a bigtime Iraq vet. He was conscripted in 1972. As far as is known, he is the last draftee on active duty. He also has jumped out of perfectly good airplanes 3,700 times. Maybe Clint Eastwood will play this guy next.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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Best Defense

The last draftee

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