US Army raises enlistment age to 42 and eases marijuana policies to bolster ranks

The U.S. Army is raising its maximum recruitment property from 35 to 42, portion besides relaxing rules for recruits with definite cause convictions.

The changes volition spell into effect connected April 20, according to Army Regulation 601–210, which was published March 20. 

The minimum property to articulation the Army is 18, but recruits tin enlist astatine 17 with parental consent. 

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The 2 fallen soldiers were identified arsenic Staff Sgt. Saul Fabian Gonzalez, 26, of Pullman, Michigan, and Sgt. 1st Class Emmett Wilfred Goodridge Jr., 40, of Roseville, Minnesota. ((Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images))

In summation to the property requirement, the Army removed restrictions for recruits who person a azygous condemnation for possession of marijuana oregon cause paraphernalia. 

Previously, specified a condemnation would person required a waiver from the Pentagon and the passing of a cause test. 

Currently, the Navy and Air Force licence recruits implicit the property of 40, but the Marine Corps' maximum property for enlistment is 28. 

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The U.S. Army has raised its maximum enlistment property from 35 to 42, the subject subdivision said.  ( Sarah Crabill/Getty Images)

In fiscal twelvemonth 2025, the Army saw a recruiting bump pursuing respective years of decline. That year, the subject subdivision recruited much than 62,000 people, surpassing its extremity of 61,000, according to the Pentagon. 

In 2022, the Army missed its recruitment extremity by 25%. 

A 2022 RAND study recommended the Army summation the maximum property for enlistment, saying that older recruits correspond a imaginable maturation area. 

The study noted that the prime of older recruits was mostly "high" and that property didn't look to "pose a important obstruction to accession."

Army Sgt. Drew Scheffer, assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Border, provides surveillance implicit the confederate borderline adjacent Santa Teresa, N.M. connected April 12. The subject has been patrolling the confederate borderline arsenic portion of the Trump medication crackdown connected amerciable migration.  (Department of Defense)

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"We’re benignant of looking astatine a much mature assemblage that mightiness person acquisition successful method fields," said Angela Chipman, main of subject unit accessions astatine the US army, according to Task & Purpose. "We request warrant officers with utmost method capabilities, and those volition travel from the enlisted ranks."

However, older recruits were little apt to implicit basal grooming and had higher attrition rates, the study states. 

The argumentation changes travel arsenic the U.S. wages warfare with Iran with the deployment of 2,000 soldiers from the US Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division and Marines to the Middle East.