LITHIA, Fla — A patriotic 'over the hill' Lithia man barely made the cut off age to serve in the Florida Air National Guard and will leave for basic training later this month.
- Lithia man, 40, joins Florida Air National Guard
- James Webb was sworn in 6 days before his 40th birthday; cutoff age is 39
- Webb gave up successful roofing business in Colorado to join guard in Florida
"I found out that the Air National Guard had the age cut off of 39," said James Webb. "So, as long as I swore-in before I turned 40, we were good and I made it by 6 days.”
Webb said he comes from a military family and began regretting not having served.
“My dad was a Veteran of 22-years,” he said. “My sister married career military.”
Webb said because of his age it took months for him to be medically cleared.
“It started like a year process because I’m old and I’ve had knee surgery and Lasik eye surgery,” he said. “Which anything like that you’ve got to go get medical stuff and x-rays and all this kind of crazy stuff.”
Webb said he gave up a successful roofing business in Colorado and moved to Florida, once he found out that he could still join the Florida Air National Guard.
“I had a pretty successful business that we sold to move down here to Florida to do this military thing,” he said. “Even the recruiter said that it was a miracle that I got through.”
Webb said he will head to Texas for 8 weeks of basic training in Texas on Nov. 25, followed by technical school in Missouri. The Lithia man will be away from his wife and three kids for about 6 months.
“Lots of love, lots of flowers,” he said. “Lots of everything with the wife to put up with all this.”
Webb will join 202d RED HORSE Squadron for 6 years and will be working with heavy equipment.
“Whenever we have hurricanes,” he said. “Or there’s a big natural disaster or something that requires heavy equipment to come clear roads or repair roads.”