SEQUIM — America was fighting the Vietnam War when Mark Baker joined the U.S. military.
More than three decades later, 52-year-old Baker is still in the service, stationed in Baghdad among soldiers more than half his age.
“I thought I was, by all standards, ancient,” Baker said in an interview at his Sequim residence, where he returned for two weeks of leave before heading back to Iraq.
When 18-year-olds are joining the military every day, the sergeant 1st class in the Washington Army National Guard’s 81st brigade is among the oldest soldiers in the war on terrorism.
Baker, who grew up in Sequim, graduated from Sequim High School and works as a dealer and pit boss at 7 Cedars Casino, was mobilized with his unit last November.
Slow retirement paperwork
He was set to retire the following month — his 20-year commitment to the Guard was up in June 2003 — but his paperwork was slow enough so that prior to it being finalized, he was called to duty.
“I didn’t really expect it, but that’s always a possibility.”
Baker’s duty in Baghdad — performing mostly clerical work for the intelligence section of his unit inside an air-conditioned building within a military compound — is not as physically demanding as other duties he could have.
But being a soldier in general is a job for a younger person, he said.
“Particularly in a combat unit, it’s physically demanding and emotionally demanding and stressful,” he said.
