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What’s behind the US army’s decision to raise enlistment age to 42?
(www.aljazeera.com)
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this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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Canada's enlistment age has been up to 50 for quite some time now. Basic gets you into shape... Or it doesn't, and you fail out.
In the grand scheme of things this really doesn't seem like a big deal. I think it's newsworthy because it reflects a clear anxiety in the US Military about their inability to fill their recruitment numbers, but beyond that It's not really all that unusual.
Well they already ditched/reduced a bunch of training last year.
Why would you need mentally sound solders…
And that's an actual problem. That's kind of my point; why are people fixating on largely meaningless things like recruitment age, instead of very real problems like ditching mental resiliency training?
No one talks about mental resiliency training and most people who would willing join the military are too fucking retarded or desperate to understand or care.
It also makes for shit headlines cause it doesn't induce enough fear.
It has? I wonder if I can enlist as an interpreter.
I can translate 'merican to English.
Sorry I can't read that. Could you translate it to Canadian English?
There's always call for all kinds of specialized trades. You have to be able to handle the core discipline requirements (just don't be a fuck up, basically) and you need to able to pass the FORCE test by the end of your basic training, which is a moderately hard physical exam. You can look up the requirements online. After that, if you're not combat arms it's basically just an office job but in uniform. You work 8 to 4, get summer and winter leave (something like 8 weeks total per year), plus usually 4 day long weekends if your command doesn't suck, guaranteed annual pay increases, probably a signing bonus if you go into an in-demand trade, and potentially access to subsidized military housing. If you don't get subsidized housing, you'll get a cost of living allowance which is based on where you're posted; for somewhere like Ottawa or Toronto it can be a few thousand a month on top of your pay.
It's definitely not for me, but honestly there are far, far worse jobs out there.
whoaaa thanks so much for the info!! I live in Japan now and wanna move back for my kids to be able to experience Canada, but find it so damn hard because I dunno what kind of jobs there are and it's just so damn expensive there now. I'm seriously considering giving it a shot if it helps me and my family resettle in Canada. Again, thanks so much for the info.
My body looks the right shape at almost 50, but my knees and shoulders would be fucked carrying the loads they require in infantry training. Probably also my back.