U.S. Army raises maximum age for enlistment

Ouch, this ones is going to effect a large amount of the US population if the draft is ever reinstated.

18 Jan 2006 23:01:34 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Army, which missed its fiscal 2005 recruiting goal, said on Wednesday it has raised the maximum enlistment age for new soldiers by five years to 39, greatly expanding its pool of potential recruits.

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[edit on 20-1-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

Originally posted by SIRR1
Ouch, this ones is going to effect a large amount of the US population if the draft is ever reinstated.

No it doesn't. When I tried to get into the Army about 5 years ago, the maximum age, they told me, was 34. However, you are no longer elegable for the draft at the age of 28. So, just because they have said that even older people who can still pass the same tests as an 18 year old can now join, there was nothing in that article saying they rasied the maximum draft age from 28 to 39.

Personally, I think they should take anyone who can pass the tests, be they 18 or that 80 year old bananaman surfer/skiier dude. If you're capable, why discriminate based on the number of seasons you've experienced?

Is this just for the Army or all branches? If this is just the Army do you think other branches will follow the Army's decission and raise the max age??

Does anyone know what the max enlistment age is for the USMC?

For some reason I always thought the Army was 27 or 28 but I guess not

the army is in desperate needs of recruits as i'm guessing the marine corps are...

While the army is desperate everybody who doesnt want to go into a combat zone will choose air force and navy which i bet their recruiting problems are way lower than the army since the army is doing the recruiting for them with this war.

Interestingly enough, reenlistment is higher than anyone had expected or hoped. Most recuiters talk about people who come in wanting to serve in Iraq. If you're in doubt of this, I can find the figures for ya.

So the question is, how accurately is the media representing this?