Expert: Rod Powers - 10/11/2007

Question
My fiancé is interested in enlisting into the Air Force, unfortunately he's 29 years old & does not have a four year college degree. What are the chances (in your opinion) of him being able to get an age waiver so that he can enlist?  He has an appointment to speak to his local recruiter on Monday, but the recruiter said that it's a very slim chance, but I know that it's possible.

What can we expect? Is there anything that we can do in order to give him a better chance at getting an age waiver? Any information that you can give us will be greatly appreciated.  
   Thank You.

Answer
Hi Melissa,

In my (educated) opinion, your fiance's chances of enlisting in the active duty Air Force at the age of 29 is not only "slim," but pretty much non-existent.

The active duty Air Force doesn't "need" new recruits. For every "slot" they have, they have three recruits trying for it. In other words, they are not approving such waivers, and haven't been for the past three or four years. The only age waivers I've seen for the active duty Air Force in the past three or four years are for those who enlisted in the Delayed Enlistment Program (DEP) prior to the active duty age cut-off of age 27, and (because of the long waiting period in the DEP to ship out), achieved their 28th birthday before the shipping date. Other than that, I don't know of a single case where an age waiver has been approved for an active duty Air Force enlistment in the past four years. I'm not sure what the recruiter agreed to meet with him.

Sorry to be so blunt, but that's the situation for Air Force active duty enlistments, as I know it.

For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my U.S. Military Information site at: http://usmilitary.about.com

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com