Expert: MARK A. HOWELL - 7/24/2009

Question
Hi,
I have a 17 year old son who is considering early enlistment in the Air Force.  He has passed his OGTs (profiencies for graduation in the state of OH), but has not graduated.  In OH, a person must be 19 years old in order to take the GED, is there another way of taking it if one is interested in enlisting?
Thanks....

Answer
Christy,
Yes. He can apply for an age waiver when he is 16, 17 or 18 years of age.   My granddaughter lives in Dayton and just received her GED at age 17.

It's very east to apply.  There is a form you must send in after it is signed by the local school superintendent or his/her designee. The Superintendent or his or her designee signing the form must be from the school district he last attended or from the school district where he currently resides.

You can find the necessary forms on-line at:
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRel...

Read the instructions on this page carefully, fill out the required forms, and mail them to the Ohio GED Office in Columbus.

Be advised, not all the Services accept recruits with a GED.

Each of the services strictly limit the number of high school dropouts (which includes GED holders) who can enlist each year. This is because years of military enlistment statistics have shown that this category of enlistees fail to complete their entire first term of military service at about twice the rate of those with a high school diploma or those with college credits.

The Air Force is the most strict on this matter. The Air Force allows less than 1% of annual enlistments to be recruits without a high school diploma. The Marines have the next highest standards.  No more than 5% of Marine recruits can be GED-holders. The Army and the Navy limits GED enlistments to no more than 10% each year.

There are always many, many more GED-holders who want to enlist than there are available slots, so -- even to be considered -- a GED holder must score much higher on the ASVAB, than a high school diploma recruit.

He should talk to a Recruiter right away to see when is the best time to join because he'll know how long it usually takes to fill up all the slots.

I wish him the best of luck,
Colonel H