Over the course of the Biden administration, our team has covered the collapse of military recruitment numbers in the wake of woke policies and useless covid vaccine mandates. The U.S. military has become less attractive as a career option for the type of men and women who would typically be inclined to serve.
The Air Force and Space Force have responded by raising the maximum enlistment age to 42 years.
Aspiring airmen and guardians now have until the age of 42 to join the Department of the Air Force.Department leadership quietly upped the age limit for new enlisted and officer recruits by three years on Oct. 25. The change arrives around a month after the Air Force missed its recruiting target for the first time since 1999.“This opens the aperture to allow more Americans the opportunity to serve,” Leslie Brown, the chief of public affairs for the Air Force recruiting service, wrote in an email to Air Force Times. “The accession age of 42 allows an Airman or Guardian to serve a full 20 years since the retirement age is 62.”
The development appears to be in response to the Air Force missing its recruitment goals for the first time in over 20 years and follows in the wake of a similar move recently made by the Navy.
The increase in the enlistment age comes nearly one month after the Air Force announced it missed its active-duty enlistment goals for the first time since 1999. Other services have also taken the same approach in recent months.In November, the Navy raised its maximum enlistment age from 39 to 41, citing the need to “widen the pool of potential recruits, creating opportunities for personnel who wish to serve, but were previously unable due to age.”The sea service’s change made it the Department of Defense branch with the oldest potential recruits, but now that distinction goes to the Air Force and Space Force. The Coast Guard, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, also changed its maximum enlistment age to 42 in November.In fiscal 2023, which ended last month, the Air Force missed its enlisted active-duty recruiting goals by 11%, getting only 24,100 of the enlisted airmen out of the 26,877 it needed.
I have a few thoughts on the subject, given that my son is poised to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy this May. The first one as a deep concern that the unrest spreading throughout the globe is likely to require a more robust U.S. military than we currently have. So many entities appear to be gearing up for military actions that have the potential to expand beyond the usual regional conflicts.
And while that thought is troubling, perhaps there are also some silver linings. Men and women in their later 30’s and early 40’s are less likely, I believe, to be besotted with Tik Tok and other social media. Therefore, they are likely to be mentally and physically healthier.
Biden’s economy is putting an enormous squeeze on families. Perhaps there will be new opportunities for some slightly less young adults to learn new skills and get a regular paycheck, whereas opportunities for work and advancement might be currently limited by Bidenomics. Furthermore, I suspect that many potential recruits in their 30’s and early 40’s may have talent stacks that may prove useful to this nation’s security.
And being older sometimes means being wiser. Our military would certainly benefit from more focus on job and duty, and less on personal and political narratives.
Here’s hoping that this is a positive development for the Air Force and Space Force. However, I will be praying that there will be a new military leadership team put in place after the 2024 election . . . one less focused on social justice, diversity, and gender identity.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY