Posted on 03/24/2026 4:12:31 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
New recruiting rules bump the age limit for recruits from 35 to 42. Easing restrictions on a single marijuana possession conviction “accounts for changes in society,” one expert said.
The Army’s previous limit was 35, though exceptions are occasionally made. The higher age limit brings the Army in line with other services’ limits of 41 in the Navy and 42 in the Air Force and Space Force, Kate Kuzminski, who studies military recruiting for the Center for a New American Security, told Task & Purpose.
Army recruiting officials have noted in recent years that the average age of recruits is increasing, with officials telling reporters in 2024 that the average recruit was 22 years, 4 months, and that it was still “going up.”
Kuzminski said the change has positives and negatives. According to a report she authored for the RAND Corporation, many older recruits scored higher on enlistment qualification tests than recruits who joined before 20. Those older recruits were also more likely to reenlist and be promoted than their younger peers.
However, older recruits were also less likely to graduate from basic training and had higher attrition rates.
The older enlistment cap is the latest in the military’s multi-billion-dollar overhaul of recruiting, launched after years of missed recruiting goals. The Army, the largest branch in the military, failed to meet annual recruiting goals in 2022 and 2023. Changes in recent years to the Army’s recruiting enterprise include installing a pre-boot camp prep course for recruits who do not initially meet fitness and academic standards and creating marketing schemes to move the Army’s messaging past the post-9/11 wars and appeal to Gen Z.
(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...
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Maybe they shouldn't have mandated the Jim Jones Jab.
there is a big difference in the job requirements for soldiers vs sailors and airmen. This is a bad move. (Retired Army Officer)
“However, older recruits were also less likely to graduate from basic training and had higher attrition rates.” No fooling!
They hand out aspercreme at basic.
I think they had this policy for a few years during recent wars.
A 42 year old living a physical outdoor life is approaching that middle age of, knees, back, aches, pains, and injuries, sounds like medical pension time.
I thought this was about the Uke Army.
U must be joking. What if in the middle of a battle one has to take a $hit?
How’s his life otherwise if he turns to the military for a job?
Them and the illegal alien invaders they were so determined to bring into the country.
They used to hand out big containers of 600 mg of Ibuprofen, for whatever ails you.
Our country was never founded to have a standing Army, and certainly never to be playing world policemen at the behest of globalist puppet masters pulling U.S. politicians’ strings.
Just preparing the ground for the upcoming draft.
War has always been a great way to bleed off the excess people in a society. That’s particularly true of young, single men who reliably cause problems for the culture unless they’re worn out in a big war.
Then, you have to find a way to train and pay those young men who survive, since frustrated young men with military training have been a reliable source of labor and knowledge for a revolution.
Napoleon knew this, and he also knew how to organize that dangerous energy.
Whatever. Kids are being raised by worming mothers. They’re glued to their dopamine sources. They are bombarded wit plastics chemicals from birth x
Control pills or whatever’s causing them to have very low testosterone, surrounded by dominating girls, ingesting stunting drugs, educated to hate America, religion, family, capitalism and history
And mandating the Covid jab for military was unconstitutional
“Our country was never founded to have a standing Army, and certainly never to be playing world policemen at the behest of globalist puppet masters pulling U.S. politicians’ strings.”
____________________________________________________________
The Founders were concerned that a standing army would be used in much the same manner ICE is currently being used: as an intimidation tactic and ready force option for tyrants.
They know they heading into another forever war and they need cannon fodder. Another generation of Americans dragged into the middle east cesspool to die. Fatherless and motherless kids, grieving wives and families. Not much happiness in America anymore. The elites and rich schmucks will get richer and the rest of us get nothing.
So sad.
troll
Twenty years ago, they used to give out huge bottles of 1000 hydrocodone to vets. I had a patient who had a dresser drawer full of that plus other meds. Then, the government started interfering in doctor’s prescribing methods. (Not that most people need 1000 hydrocodone, or 1000 anything.)
Nobody was shocked by this the first time the Army did this, except me, who posted it a number of times.
“From 2007 to 2016, the Army’s maximum enlistment age was set at 42 to sustain demand for the surge in the war in Iraq.”
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2023/04/the-army-should-be-looking-for-a-few-older-soldiers.html
We have a friend whose husband entered the army when the idiots in charge were determined to make it a kinder, gentler military. I think he’s chafing a bit under the new regime. When I asked him how he liked our new Secretary of War, he diplomatically would only say, “I’ve never met him”.
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