Navy raises enlistment age limit to 41 as recruiting problems continue
BY PGF
2 years ago
Oddly the article fails to address the causes of recruiting shortfalls.
The U.S. Navy has raised its maximum age for general enlistment from 39 to 41, after the U.S. military saw historic struggles with recruiting in the 2022 fiscal year and signs of continued struggles ahead.
Navy Times first reported on the new enlistment age cutoff on Monday. The updated age limit went into effect last week.
Prior to this change, the Navy’s general enlistment cutoff age was 39 and sailors had to report to boot camp before their 40th birthday. Under the new change, recruits must now report to boot camp before their 42nd birthday.
“As we continue to navigate a challenging recruiting environment, raising the enlistment age allows us to widen the pool of potential recruits, creating opportunities for personnel who wish to serve,” Navy Recruiting Command spokesman Cmdr. Dave Benham told Navy Times.
[…]
At the present moment, the U.S. Army’s maximum general enlistment age is still set at 35 years old.
The U.S. Air Force’s maximum general enlistment age is 40.
The U.S. Marine Corp maintains the lowest general enlistment age, requiring recruits to enlist by age 28.
In addition to raising its enlistment age, the Navy has been rolling out other measures to attract more recruits.
This year, the Navy barely passed its active-component enlisted recruiting goal 33,400 new enlisted sailors, bringing in 33,442 sailors in total. While it barely met it’s active enlisted recruiting goal, the Navy missed its 200 active-duty officer goal number by 209 officers.
We’re not sure if the 200 vs. 209 numbers are correct or if there is an error in the reporting. Does this mean they had a net loss of nine officers?
The service’s reserve component also saw shortfalls. By the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, the Navy Reserve had recruited 5,442 new recruits of its 7,400-recruit goal. The Navy Reserve also brought in 982 new officers out of its goal of 1,360.
The US military has devolved into a jobs program at this point. But why bother with all the hassle of military life when you can make more money doing roofing without concerning yourself with learning English? Patriotism is why Americans joined up and tolerated the rigors of military life, but the reasons to be patriotic have been systematically removed.
On November 28, 2022 at 2:41 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
As a forty-year old just a few weeks past the age cutoff, I busted my butt to get into the navy as a green-side corpsman – i.e., a doc for the Marines – back in 2001. I was a medic on the civilian side and thought I might be able to help some boys…
A buddy in the same predicament worked at it, too. We were both still PT studs back then, and could keep up with the kids pretty well. But the DOD/Pentagon told us no, because the rules were sacrosanct and couldn’t be bent or broken for our convenience.
By and by, we find out that if you are politically-connected, getting a waiver for almost anything is easy. Former S.C. governor Mark Sanford, who was in his mid-forties at the time, up and decided one day in the mid-2000s that he wanted to be in the military. So, he picked up the phone and called the Pentagon and lo-and-behold, presto, an age waiver appeared. Not long afterwards, he was a captain (O-3) in the USAF Reserve, and CO of a medical service corps unit. His prior military experience was zero and his civilian occupation prior to getting into politics was real-estate developer.
In other words, the fix is in everywhere… we were not happy, to say the least.
These days, I count my blessings at not getting into the clown show known as the U.S. military. And that enlistment age being raised to forty-one? I can’t stop laughing…
Betcha their next move is to allow foreign nations into the armed forces, a.k.a. an American “foreign legion” – which has been a wet-dream of statists for a while now… all of the cannon fodder they want, and not having to answer to the public about their sons and daughters…
On November 28, 2022 at 5:39 pm, Ozark Redneck said:
@Georgiaboy61, I think you nailed it “American Foreign Legion”, watch for them to change the word legally to illegally in this document, next time they pass a defense spending bill or immigration bill…
https://immigrationforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/VNA-Fact-Sheet.pdf