Prince.Skeletor
Don’t Be Like He-Man
The United States Army has officially raised its enlistment age limit to 42 from 35 and eased restrictions for people with marijuana convictions, a move that comes years after a period in which it struggled to meet its recruitment goals and as the country is engaged in a war with Iran.
The updated enlistment requirements, published last week, bring the service’s age requirements more in line with other branches of the military, including the Air Force, which raised its maximum age for recruits to 42 from 39 in 2023, and the Navy, which increased its age cap to 41 from 39 in 2022.
The updated requirements, which go into effect on April 20, also allow recruits with a single prior conviction of possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia to forgo procuring a waiver from Army officials in order to enlist. Under the previous requirements, recruits with low-level marijuana convictions typically had to wait two or three years and pass a drug test to receive a waiver.
While the policy for the regulations was first issued in 2023, the Army codified it last week in a regulation, which is an official, mandatory policy document, the Army said in a statement.
Katherine Kuzminski, the director of studies at the Center for a New American Security and an expert on military recruitment, said the Army most likely increased its age cap to match other military branches and to tap into a larger pool of people with needed skills, including experts in cybersecurity, logistics and transportation.
Ms. Kuzminski was an author of a 2022 report issued by the RAND Corporation that examined the outcomes of older recruits in the Army. The experts found that older recruits were more likely to fail out of basic training, but if they passed, they were promoted more quickly and re-enlisted at higher rates than recruits under 20.
Mature soldiers at the beginning of their military careers “might be a real value add to those around them in the barracks, and might add a lot of value back to the Army, especially in some of these technical skills,” Ms. Kuzminski said.
The changes to the marijuana regulations, she said, are most likely an effort to speed up the waiver process, which can stretch on for months, during which a potential enlistee might lose interest. The military also has to adjust to the society around it, she said, as nearly half of the states in the country have legalized recreational marijuana use.
The updated enlistment requirements, published last week, bring the service’s age requirements more in line with other branches of the military, including the Air Force, which raised its maximum age for recruits to 42 from 39 in 2023, and the Navy, which increased its age cap to 41 from 39 in 2022.
The updated requirements, which go into effect on April 20, also allow recruits with a single prior conviction of possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia to forgo procuring a waiver from Army officials in order to enlist. Under the previous requirements, recruits with low-level marijuana convictions typically had to wait two or three years and pass a drug test to receive a waiver.
While the policy for the regulations was first issued in 2023, the Army codified it last week in a regulation, which is an official, mandatory policy document, the Army said in a statement.
Katherine Kuzminski, the director of studies at the Center for a New American Security and an expert on military recruitment, said the Army most likely increased its age cap to match other military branches and to tap into a larger pool of people with needed skills, including experts in cybersecurity, logistics and transportation.
Ms. Kuzminski was an author of a 2022 report issued by the RAND Corporation that examined the outcomes of older recruits in the Army. The experts found that older recruits were more likely to fail out of basic training, but if they passed, they were promoted more quickly and re-enlisted at higher rates than recruits under 20.
Mature soldiers at the beginning of their military careers “might be a real value add to those around them in the barracks, and might add a lot of value back to the Army, especially in some of these technical skills,” Ms. Kuzminski said.
The changes to the marijuana regulations, she said, are most likely an effort to speed up the waiver process, which can stretch on for months, during which a potential enlistee might lose interest. The military also has to adjust to the society around it, she said, as nearly half of the states in the country have legalized recreational marijuana use.
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