The United States army announced last month that it would raise the maximum age at which Americans can enlist from 35 to 42 years to expand its pool of eligible candidates amid recruiting challenges in recent years.
An updated version of US Army Regulation 601–210, dated March 20, outlined the changes, including the elimination of rules requiring anyone with a single conviction for marijuana possession or drug paraphernalia to obtain a waiver to enlist.
The new age limit was announced during the US-Israel war on Iran, towards which young people have expressed widespread opposition.
The updated version of Army Regulation 601–210 officially takes effect on Monday, April 20.
Jesus fucking christ. Most people who are 42 actually look and act like it. This won’t end well.
For instance I’m 29 and I do not have the body of a soldier. Never have, probably never will.
Canada’s enlistment age has been up to 50 for quite some time now. Basic gets you into shape… Or it doesn’t, and you fail out.
In the grand scheme of things this really doesn’t seem like a big deal. I think it’s newsworthy because it reflects a clear anxiety in the US Military about their inability to fill their recruitment numbers, but beyond that It’s not really all that unusual.
Well they already ditched/reduced a bunch of training last year.
Why would you need mentally sound solders…
And that’s an actual problem. That’s kind of my point; why are people fixating on largely meaningless things like recruitment age, instead of very real problems like ditching mental resiliency training?
No one talks about mental resiliency training and most people who would willing join the military are too fucking retarded or desperate to understand or care.
It also makes for shit headlines cause it doesn’t induce enough fear.
My body looks the right shape at almost 50, but my knees and shoulders would be fucked carrying the loads they require in infantry training. Probably also my back.
Good news is you don’t need very much training to be drone fodder.
It has? I wonder if I can enlist as an interpreter.
I can translate 'merican to English.
Sorry I can’t read that. Could you translate it to Canadian English?
There’s always call for all kinds of specialized trades. You have to be able to handle the core discipline requirements (just don’t be a fuck up, basically) and you need to able to pass the FORCE test by the end of your basic training, which is a moderately hard physical exam. You can look up the requirements online. After that, if you’re not combat arms it’s basically just an office job but in uniform. You work 8 to 4, get summer and winter leave (something like 8 weeks total per year), plus usually 4 day long weekends if your command doesn’t suck, guaranteed annual pay increases, probably a signing bonus if you go into an in-demand trade, and potentially access to subsidized military housing. If you don’t get subsidized housing, you’ll get a cost of living allowance which is based on where you’re posted; for somewhere like Ottawa or Toronto it can be a few thousand a month on top of your pay.
It’s definitely not for me, but honestly there are far, far worse jobs out there.
whoaaa thanks so much for the info!! I live in Japan now and wanna move back for my kids to be able to experience Canada, but find it so damn hard because I dunno what kind of jobs there are and it’s just so damn expensive there now. I’m seriously considering giving it a shot if it helps me and my family resettle in Canada. Again, thanks so much for the info.
I had the body of a soldier, but it took too much space in the freezer.
Yeah, I didn’t want to die for an idiot government in my 20s, but now I don’t want to and am not getting up and into a warzone. I’m too old for this shit and I’m already in my pajamas. And my feetsies hurt from walking too much and I’m full of cheese.
Full of cheese you say? Do you know what day of the week it is?
Wensleyday?
Oh nos, the confusion has set in. 🤭
I don’t care if a bunch of self-delusional 40 year old MAGAs think they’re tough enough to go kill all those weak Iranians, and end up getting themselves killed. The more the merrier, as far as I’m concerned.
Most 40 year olds are just fine. Bitching about a back and being slower doesn’t make you unable to fight my man. Y’all yeah take the Internet to seriously.
Second modern warfare isn’t living in a trench on the front advancing back and forth, your not marching absurd amounts of gear. Most are hunkered down with drones and a laptop.
Idiotic conversation that we’re having, but let’s not pretend that most of these people will tell the government to fuck off and jail me or sabotage the effort. Thats going to be the actual issue.
The biggest branch in the US Army is infantry and they carry a bunch of shit and move around quite a bit.
Confidently incorrect is the best kind of incorrect.
Tell me you a) haven’t paid attention to any modern conflict taking place on earth right now, and b) you’ve never actually done any of it yourself, without telling me.
There’s plenty of jobs in the military that aren’t fighting on the front lines. US power at war is derived from its logistics. Need people to drive trucks, get water, build shit. USMC has over 300 jobs, but 03 jobs are essentially the ones considered front lines. They always throw the 10% number around, 10% do the fighting while 90% support.
And 90% of logistics is moving heavy things long distances.
I’ve never met a single service person, in both my 10 years in and since, who didn’t have to carry heavy shit. The whole military mindset is “Don’t use a machine to do what human bodies can do with a little effort.”
I served with dudes whose motto was if you can’t truck it, fuck it, but I get what you’re saying. I also think we’re not talking crazy heavy shit. A case of MREs is like 20lbs, and I’m sure you, like me, did many an assembly line of MREs. I actually found loading trucks via assembly line to be efficient. And did I sometimes carry 100+lbs of shit? Absolutely, but I also did that 03 job.
They’ll find a place for the older, heftier folks to serve. And they’ll also get those people in better shape.
LOL people under the age of 40 downvoted you, my guess. Are you the same as you were at 25 when you hit 45? No. Are you old and invalid? Also no.
Clearly not kept up on reports from ukraine.
I’m actually pretty sure both of those are listed as prerequisites for getting your first hook.