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Army Enlistment Age

MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM age of Enlistment in the Army in 2024 | Too old? or Too young?

Um, the army can now enlist people all the way up to 43.

The army is a young man’s gig. The question is, what is young? And if the army is a young man’s gig, how old is too old to be in the army? In fact, let’s back it up a little bit. How old is too old, and how young is too young?

In this video, I’m going to tell you what the minimum age is, what the maximum age is, and what the army allows today in 2023. There are some advantages to joining at a certain age in any sport because the army is a team sport. It’s kind of like football, maybe. All right, let’s start with how young you can join the army: at the age of 17 with your parental consent.

Obviously, when you turn 18, you’re a grown man or woman, so you can make your own decision. So you can enlist at the age of 18, but technically, you can enlist at the age of 17, provided that your parents sign off on you joining the military. The cutoff age by regulation is 35. Now, 35 is a little bit tricky, because if you join the army reserve, you have to assess before your 35th birthday. What does that mean?

Assess means swear in. So as soon as you finish your processing with your recruiter, you go to MEPS, you pass your medical exam, and you enlist. The moment you enlist, you’re assessed. So you’ve got to do that before your 35th birthday. That’s in the army reserve.

Now, if you’re going to active duty, you have to be shipped out to basic training before your 35th birthday. So if your birthday is tomorrow, your ship date should be today. In 2023, we have a new exception to policy. It’s not a waiver; it’s an exception to policy. I just told you what the policy is. The exception is the army can now enlist people all the way up to 43.

So if you’re 42, before your 43rd birthday, you have to be enlisted in the army reserve or shipped out to training before your 43rd birthday. When you go to your local recruiting station, depending on how old you are past your 35th birthday, the process might be a little bit different. Not to you, at least, but the approval process, because of the exception to policy. The United States Army Recruiting Command can approve exceptions to policy all the way up to the age of 40. If you’re 41 all the way to 43, DMPM is the approval authority.

You’re probably thinking, what does that mean? Don’t worry about those. It’s just a matter of how long the approving timeline is. So typically, USAREC is internal so you probably can get that approved within a day. Now, if you’re 41 all the way up to before your 43rd birthday, that’s going to take a little longer.

The timeline might be a little bit longer. No way of telling. Maybe a few days to a few weeks. Now, what you’re probably asking is, what do you need to do to get the exception to policy to join at the age of 36 all the way up to 43? One thing: you just have to go to your recruiter.

You have to write a statement. The statement would simply say why you joined the army late, why you didn’t join before your 35th birthday, and what value you bring to the organization. That’s it. You tell that in your statement. It doesn’t have to be five pages long, just one page.

As long as those two things are being addressed, why you joined late and basically selling yourself. But the main thing that the army is looking for really is the reason why you joined late. One example would be an immigrant who got their green card probably at age 32. That’s why they weren’t able to join right away. And I see that a lot because if you join the army with a green card, you’re basically on a streamlined process to get your citizenship and you don’t have to pay anything.

So I’ve seen that a lot. That’s a good reason. Other reasons might be you were in school or you were in college. That’s why you waited that long. You wanted to finish your degree first, whatever the reason is, as long as you have a reason why it’s a meritorious exception to policy and typically it’s going to get approved, that gives you an ability to now serve your country later on in life.

Now, is there an advantage or disadvantage? Sure. If you’re joining the army younger, which is, we all know, a young man’s gig. This is my opinion. Now, you’re more resilient and your recovery is a lot faster when it comes to physical activities.

If you’re working out, you basically heal faster in theory, but don’t quote me on that. If you’re a little bit older, you might get hurt a lot faster. But like I said, those are just in your head. I don’t believe it’s true. And, guys, don’t get discouraged if it’s a little too late for you because I, for one, joined the army at the age of 26 and I turned out okay.

Another myth is that if you’re older, you have this old man strength. Is it true? Who knows? But at least now you know that you can join the army all the way up to before your 43rd birthday. So if you’re interested in serving your country, go talk to your local recruiter.

If you want to know the new process of joining the army, click right here. And if you want to know how to get promoted as quickly as possible because time is ticking, you’re a little older, click right here. Thanks for watching. This is the high-speed FNG.

Stay tuned so you can learn a lot more. Catch you later.

George N.
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