At the Van Nuys Army recruiting station last week, Gary J. Rankins ordered his son Joseph M. Rankins to drop to the floor and do some push-ups. As the 19-year-old pumped up and down, the 40-year-old father checked out his son's form.
"You shouldn't go down so far," the elder told the younger. "You'll only wear yourself out."
Gary Rankins should know. He served in the Army from 1986 to 1994. About a month ago, he got frustrated about his job prospects and decided to enlist again. He persuaded his son to join the Army a few weeks after that.
They plan to swear in together this week. "We're just waiting on my blood work," Gary Rankins said Monday.
The father-and-son recruits are one of the rare scenarios possible now that the Army has raised the age limit for new enlistees to 42. Since mid-2006, when the new age limit was established, 665 people over 40 have signed enlistment papers.
The Army does not routinely keep track of parents and children enlisting at the same time, but these pairings are certainly "infrequent," said S. Douglas Smith, a spokesman with the Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky. He knew of one father-daughter pair who enlisted in Florida a few weeks ago.
For decades, the Army did not accept recruits over 35. But the need for more soldiers and the improved physical condition of people over 35 moved the Army to go to Congress to change the age limit, Smith said.
Recruits over 40 still face hurdles, such as getting more blood work done to check for cholesterol and other age-related health issues, said Staff Sgt. Eugene Washington who works at the Van Nuys Recruiting Station that processed the Rankins pair. But older recruits can also sail through other parts of the process.
"They're not usually on probation or have other issues, like an arrest in their records," Washington said. "The background check tends to come back on those guys pretty clean."
Older people have many reasons for joining, but the economy appears to play a role.
"The retirement age is higher now [for civilians] and if you come into the Army, you can retire at 61," said Sgt. 1st Class William Allen, who also works at Van Nuys. "People later in life want job security, not a quick buck. This is a guaranteed paycheck and medical insurance."
The economy certainly played a role for Gary Rankins. The Van Nuys resident said he had been thinking about reenlisting for years, but the time never seemed right. He left the Army in 1994 because he had recently divorced Joseph's mother and wanted to spend more time with his son, who had moved to California with his mother.
