View Full Version : Age requirement?
Talked to a recruiter today, thanks to a friend of mine with an 18x giving him my name/number. Anyway I talked to him about the 18x contract and he mentioned I have to be 20 years old to enlist with that certain contract, I was wondering if this is true or if hes just mistaken, considering I had to tell him what an Option 40 was, I just wanted to be sure, Thanks.
Give a me day or two...
I'll get the regulations of the requirement of enlisting and post them.
Take care.
My son went in on the 18X contract when he was 19 (July 2004). He's 20 now and will most likely be 21 when (I'm staying positive) he completes Language School which will be the final part of the initial training. Not sure if things have changed since he enlisted. Good luck with your decision making. I've found the men in this forum to be a wealth of information. Do yourself a favor though and do a SEARCH first to see if your question has been discussed previously. Best of luck with your decisions.
elmntskater1588
10-03-2005, 19:14
Im 17 and I have a 18x contract.
Im 17 and I have a 18x contract. You have to be 18 by the time you ship.
I'd like to hear about you being a wise old SGM at 37. Stay in touch and give it hell.
Best of luck to you.
Doc
Team Sergeant
10-03-2005, 19:49
Im 17 and I have a 18x contract. You have to be 18 by the time you ship.
I didn't turn 18 until I was in Jump School....... ;)
(And retired at 39 Doc!)
TS
This isn't the AR and is dated 2002. The only age requirement listed is to be less than 30 years at time of enlistment.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HZY/is_4_15/ai_100230650
Thanks everyone for the quick responses, this was one of the reasons ive been trying to avoid recruiters until im good to go. Also elementskater, my friend is shipping out with an 18x 6 days after you are. I may be too now that I know the truth, so once you get closer to your shipdate let me know if you want his name.
Do you guys have Boy Soldiers like the Brits do?
It's semi related so I figured it would be alright here.
Kyobanim
10-04-2005, 19:11
Do you guys have Boy Soldiers like the Brits do?
What the hell is a boy soldier?
I'll take that as a no. It's a soldier who goes in at either 15 or 16, I forget which.
I'll take that as a no. It's a soldier who goes in at either 15 or 16, I forget which.
WHEW!!! :eek:
elmntskater1588
10-04-2005, 20:46
Thanks everyone for the quick responses, this was one of the reasons ive been trying to avoid recruiters until im good to go. Also elementskater, my friend is shipping out with an 18x 6 days after you are. I may be too now that I know the truth, so once you get closer to your shipdate let me know if you want his name.
Thanks, Will do. Is he a PT freak?
CoLawman
10-04-2005, 22:53
Do you guys have Boy Soldiers like the Brits do?
It's semi related so I figured it would be alright here.
Kia, The answer is no. In fact a person under the age of 18 is required to get parental consent.
Additonally I believe that a soldier is still required to have at a minimum a GED to enlist. Which would further preclude someone so young from enlisting.
I guess I am wrong, According to the Army Times Dated 100305
http://www.armytimes.com/print.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-1115401.php :(
Hey Joedan,
I'm shipping out around that time too. You should have your friend get an account here since there's TONS of information for him to look at.
cback0220
10-05-2005, 11:04
Your recruiter is not giving you the runaround. The change happened on October first. I actually had to hustle to get down there before then in order to enlist before that day. Still though I had to have an interview with a colonel from the recruiting command. They said that the washout rate among 17-18-19 year olds was getting pretty high and they wanted to stop that. Another thing that they want is some college education. So unless all of San Diego's recruituing district is giving me the runaround it changed
Your recruiter is not giving you the runaround. The change happened on October first. I actually had to hustle to get down there before then in order to enlist before that day. Still though I had to have an interview with a colonel from the recruiting command. They said that the washout rate among 17-18-19 year olds was getting pretty high and they wanted to stop that. Another thing that they want is some college education. So unless all of San Diego's recruituing district is giving me the runaround it changed
Thanks for the info.
Drew5337
10-17-2005, 15:15
I spoke with a recruiter today about this. He said the age requirement had gone up, though he did not know to what. He thought it was 21. I am 24, so no biggie for me, but I am not too suprised at the change. Yet another recruiter I sat down with today (who unfortunatly looks like will be my main guy) didn't even know what 18x was. He asked what kinds of jobs I was interested in, and I said 18x, and got a dumbfounded look:rolleyes: Great........
Leozinho
10-22-2005, 15:09
They said that the washout rate among 17-18-19 year olds was getting pretty high and they wanted to stop that. Another thing that they want is some college education.
I don't know about changes to the 18x contract, but I can offer anecdotal evidence (from going through SOPC 1 and 2 and being part of two different Q course classes) that 18 and 19 year olds don't do well in the course.
My original SOPC class is finishing up the Q course right about now. We started out with tons of 18 year olds, but not many of them made it. I think that the biggest reason many failed is that these guys had never lived away from Mom and had never had to assume any kind of responsibility before joining.
For the most part they didn't have the maturity or discipline. They stay out late and then sleep through formation the next day. (I did that too when I was 19, but the difference is that you don't get kicked out of college for sleeping through class. It's very likely you will get kicked out of Student Co for things like that.)
On a jump, while under canopy, a fellow pulled out of his pocket a little toy action figure with a mini-parachute and released it. It drifted right over all the cadre. Guess how old he was? 19.
A few Echo classes back 8 guys got caught with cell phones on the main field training exercise. It was no suprise to me that 7 out of 8 were X-Rays, and mostly younger ones. They couldn't go 14 days without talking to their girlfriends in high school, I guess. You just don't see E-5s from the 82nd willing to jeopardize their careers over a couple of phone calls.
On the other hand, the older X-rays - the E-4 with degrees, and there are a lot of them in the course - succeed at a much higher rate, from my limited observation. I am not saying that a college degree helps in the course, but it shows that one has spent 4 or 5 years in the (semi) real world and has grown up a bit.
Another factor is that the 18 x-rays that came in as E-4s (I'll call them E-4s rather than college boys) are more "focused" on SF, and in a sense have more to lose if they quit. They gave up, or turned down, better paying civilian jobs for a shot at SF. Or they turned down OCS, preferring to enlist and try to go straight to SF. All of the E-4s I talked to said that they would not have joined had it not been for the chance to be SF. So in a sense they are less cavalier than the younger guys. (I'm not saying they don't want to be SF for the wrong reasons, or that they aren't deluded about exactly what SF is, because many are. That's a different subject.) Contrast that with an 18 year old that is going to enlist anyway and the recruiter talks him into an 18x-ray contract, and guess which one is more likely to quit in SFAS.
Never mind the degree, a 24 year old that has been living on his own and supporting himself for 4 years seems to be more likely to finish the course.
Lest anyone think I have it out for young guys, let me add that there are more than a few 18 year olds that are squared away, and there are 26 year olds with degrees who gave up good jobs that are sh*tbags and quitters. And remember, the 18 year olds that eventually make it will be closer to 21 by the time they make it to a team.
Rant over. (If you couldn't guess, I'm one of the oldest guys in my class.)
Edited to correct spelling.
Warrior-Mentor
10-23-2005, 13:35
Resurrecting info from the flip side of this discussion...
Saw the age analysis from the Special Ops Recruiting Company Commander.
It was age vs grad at SFAS...
Showed 18 yr olds had lowest, with it steadily improving to age 22, where it plateau'd to age 28, then a slight drop..and an increase to age 32. The chart stopped at age 32.
The increases over age 28 are somewhat artificial as it was a percentage and there only 1-2 guys that age, but they made it...
Good news for the old guys.
Do a search for the thread Oldest SF Candidate
Best of luck,
JM
Leozinho
10-23-2005, 18:21
Sir,l
My guess is that the difference in success rate between the young and the older would be even greater it was measured by completion of Q Course, rather than SFAS, as a lot of the mistakes that I saw the younger guys make occurred after Selection.
(Again, this is based purely on my limited observations.)
Now if you factor in the injury rate, we old guys may not perform so well.
I have seen some interesting comments here but the original question is useless. USARREC has a web site and I am sure you can get the answer from the horses mouth. We heroes, past, present and future can tell you what we think we know but it is best to get the info from proper sources. If you think an answer is not accurate take it up the ladder and not to the latrine for the latrine lawyers (polite term) to mull over.