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.