USMC to 18X, and pretty old.

Crunchy89

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I'm a former Marine (2673) and I EAS'd (honorable) in July 2015. I got out, finished college and am currently contracting in Afghanistan. I am 29 years old, no criminal record, active TS/SCI, 98 ASVAB, 136 DLAB. I'm in good shape but obviously I plan on training a lot more to prepare. I'm wondering what the possibilities are of me even receiving an 18X contract with the Army. I understand the age limit is 30 and therefore would be an issue, is it commonly waivered? Any input would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks,

John
 
@Crunchy89
Check this link out and scroll down to the Army Special Forces part.

How Old Can You Be To Enlist In The Military?

Your Marine background may put you in a good spot to get an age waiver. According to this article, your number of years is subtracted from your age for eligibility. There are countless stories, questions, and threads on this. Some with clear and some with not so clear answers. My advice is shoot for it and get a clear answer. Contact an Army recruiter, state the information you found regarding your age(the positive info of course) and work with him to get you the waiver and package in.

If your heart is so set for 18X, the National Guard does not have an age limit. I highly encourage you to do more digging on this site and google. You may find some more success stories that will point you in the right direction.

Special Forces Prior Service Applicants | National Guard

Don't quit til' you get a NO from the people who have the final say of whether you get in or not. Middle men will only look into what they know with the little time they have. Expand their knowledge, you increase your chances of getting the right answers and the right direction.

God speed Marine.
 
Left recruiting detail not too long ago. It's true that they subtract your active duty Time In Service from your age, so if you were active duty you'd definitely be good on that end. If you were reserves, could be a little tricky. That said, Recruiting Command can be really finicky with 18X, Ranger, and sometimes even Airborne. If there's ANYTHING that makes them think you might not meet the standard, they'll deny the option. Moving on - at this point, we'll assume you're good to go. At this point, there has to be an 18X slot available for you to take, and no one can predict that in advance. If there is, take it. If not, I'd recommend taking a Combat Arms job and then doing SFAS selection, as opposed to trying to wait on an 18X slot (more on that later). They recently opened up SOPC (the prep course) to everyone, so you won't be at a disadvantage when you go to SFAS. The other thing is that standards are different for doing selection when you're already in than when you're trying to enlist - they're more lenient (age requirement being one example). My reason for mentioning all of this is that most recruiting commands won't let someone wait around for their dream job- they'll just tell you to go away, and then you'll have to find a recruiting center elsewhere that's willing to send you back to MEPS. So make sure you've got a backup plan when you go to MEPS...like 18X, 11B, 19D... and so on.
 
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