From Army Times
The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.
Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties.
The Pentagon’s request to raise the maximum recruit age to 42 is part of what defense officials are calling a package of “urgent wartime support initiatives” sent to Congress Monday night prior to a Tuesday hearing of the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee.
Some effort is being made to present this as though people over the age of forty are beating down the military’s door. I listened to a story on NPR on Saturday about a 42 year old that wanted to enlist, and then in Stars And Stripes there is this
“I also think that we make a mistake in the military by having people automatically be forced out in the event that they may wish to stay in,” he said.
I see this as a way to force people that would be aloud to retire to stay. I was wondering what the crowd here thought of the new change.
