Here's Why Teens Want to Join the U.S. Military Right Now (Yes, Now)

It’s a Tuesday evening in New York City and the U.S. Marine Corps Career Center, not far from the 9/11 Memorial, feels more like a youth clubhouse than an entry point to the elite fighters’ ranks. High schoolers in jeans and trainers fill out forms at the dark laminate desks while service members in uniform answer their questions. One guy with a serious face leans out the office door on Chambers Street, asking, “You want to be a Marine?” to any potential candidate who passes by. 

Jade Bullens, 17, a high school senior with a cherry-red streak in her dark hair, has already enlisted. She’s just visiting the office, outfitted with couches and a gym, which she does a couple times a week. “A lot of my family has joined,” she says. “I want to be a part of that family tree thing.” 

Yes, even amidst on-again-off-again warring in the Middle East, the military — which recently announced it will begin automatic Selective Service registration for all young men when they turn 18 — is attracting willing teens to its ranks. Enlistees and hopefuls cite reasons from family history and patriotic pride to belief that it’s the best path to a solid future.

Last year, in fact, the U.S. Armed Forces reported their best recruitment figures in more than a decade, averaging 103% of strived-for numbers across the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Marines Corp., finishing the year with nearly 164,000 new troops. And while the average age of enlistment has gone up slightly — at least in the Army, where entry age now stands at 22.7 and the max age of enlistment was recently pushed from 35 to 42 — the military is open to individuals 18 and up, 17 with parental consent (although, under the current administration, transgender applicants do not qualify). It still draws about 5% (or 150,000) of teen recruits fresh out of high school.

What’s Motivating Teens to Join the Armed Forces?

Mateo Martinez, 18, of Silver Spring, Md., is the first in his family to join the military. He has a passion for martial arts, including kickboxing, and joined the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) after garnering attention at an event where a recruiter challenged young attendees to lift a 40-pound animal crate over their heads, testing strength and endurance. He did it 40 times, no breaks. “It was hard,” Mateo says, “but the guy was motivating and I did it.” 

Mateo had planned to go into a technical program after high school, training to work as a mechanic. But that day, he says, he realized he felt more suited to a soldier’s life. “I needed to prove that I could do it,” he says. He also had another unique motivation: In 2020, he was diagnosed with stage 2 lymphoma, and was told he might have a year to live. Instead, he survived seven surgeries and six weeks of chemotherapy, and is here to tell the tale.

Now he’ll begin 13 weeks of recruit training in May and, if successful, will move on to an infantry training battalion for six months, which he hopes to be the start of a military career.

“I beat cancer,” he says. “I can do anything.” 

Boone Ireland, 17, is taking a decidedly different path to service: the New Yorker has committed to attending West Point, the United States Military Academy, in the fall. For her acceptance, she had to get a referral from a local congressperson, complete a lengthy application, and do a Zoom interview with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, who gave her the tough-to-score nomination.

She also completed a hard-core camp at West Point last summer — impressive for a teen whose mom came up with the idea of applying. Now she’s set to begin “Beast,” a.k.a. Cadet Basic Training, three days after high school ends in June. The six-week, 24/7 program, she hears, is “death by physical activity” with 4am wake-ups. Still, Boone is motivated. 

“I was initially super reluctant,” she says, but became a convert when she learned she could get a no-debt law degree and practice in the Army’s Judge Advocate’s General’s (JAG) Corps along the way. Plus, she points out, “You graduate a commanding officer.”

In her junior year, she’ll need to commit to five years of active service and three in the reserves.

“We can’t not have a military,” the student says, noting she’s aware of sexism, hazing, and other negatives women have reportedly encountered at military academies. “I’m not opposed to defending and fighting for America.”

Walker Elrod, an 18-year-old track phenom from Bainbridge, Ga., signed his pledge to attend the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., in early April. The senior and three-time cross-country state champion clocks a 9:05 two-mile and has a 4.0 GPA, and earned nominations from both U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock and Georgia Congressman Sanford Bishop. He intends to trade on his accolades, studying aerospace engineering and Russian language on the government’s tab, and training as a fighter pilot.

“I’ve always wanted to go to a military academy,” he says, adding that his offer felt like a chance to “set myself up for life.”

But he sees possible cons, too. “There’s a chance I’ll have to go into it,” he says, looking past the current war in Iran but knowing any conflict could bubble up before his five years of post-grad active duty are up. It’s even hard for this only child of a single mom to think about leaving home to go to basic training this summer. “My mom and I are very, very close,” he says. “She’s built me from the ground up.”

Military academies are tough to get into, with acceptance rates in the single digits. But students curious about joining the ranks find that the inroads are abundant and include enlisting at a recruiting office or college fair booth and enrolling in college campus-based ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) programs that offer assistance with tuition and books as a swap for service after graduation. A lot of young people feel, or have heard, that the rigors of military training can prepare them for life in a way that college’s lecture halls and high price tags won’t. In fact, a 2023 survey by the National Military Family Association found the biggest reasons for teens joining were to help pay for education, gain work experience or skills, or for health benefits.

Saint Clair Lewis Jr., 17, is still in the thinking stage of things when it comes to reporting for duty. Known as Uriah to his classmates at his downtown Manhattan high school, he’s seriously considering enlisting in the Air Force upon graduation, along with enrolling in trade school to learn welding. “I’m basically a role model to my three younger brothers,” he says. His aunt is a Marine and told him that the Air Force offers opportunities he might not find otherwise. He’s hoping she can guide him with advice and reassurance, and maybe calm down his mom, who is not in favor of his enlisting. (He says his dad would be proud.)

“If I have to go to combat and fight, it’s going to be a very unfortunate situation. I don’t like violence,” he admits. On the upside, he says, “I’d get to get out, explore the world. I’m actually trying to get away from where I’m at. I’ve been here all my life.” 

What to Think About Before Enlisting as a Teen

Danielle McGraw, PhD, a clinical psychologist practicing in Arizona, acknowledges that the chance to get out of dodge is a common reason why teens enlist. Still, many are in for a rude awakening once they arrive.

“You join the military as a way to get out, but the culture can be difficult,” says McGraw, who was raised by an Army dad and has worked with active-duty military inpatients and veterans needing mental-health care. She warns that depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse are common problems among even military leaders. Candidates in boot camp and other training programs must give up their phones and sometimes suffer verbal and emotional abuse. “It’s acceptable to yell at people” in basic training and long after that, she says. “Usually, you can’t talk to anyone about it.” 

“I feel like I’m pretty good at enduring things,” says Axel Kirk, 18, of Brooklyn, who only recently decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in history before enlisting. He says he has a lot of relatives who’ve served, including his father, his uncles, and beyond. His grandfather was a Marine firefighter and his great uncle was a U.S. Special Forces Green Beret in the Vietnam War. Axel, whose dad’s side of the family is Native American, believes that serving would honor his heritage “by keeping that tradition going,” as well as offer him the sort of brotherhood portrayed in war movies.

“I recognize the risks and I don’t want to, like, hurt anybody, but I would go through with it,” he says, adding that his goal would be to serve “with a group of people I could feel a bond and a sense of kinship with.” 

McGraw suggests that teens who are considering enlisting think — and talk to a parent or other adult — about their real motivations for signing on, as well as how they imagine life in the military will be. Because while serving can have perks like stable housing and scholarships, the early years are about truly earning every comfort — something done by following the chain of command, living by a schedule, and submitting to physical and mental tasks that test your limits. 

For teens determined to wear a uniform, one idea is to investigate Future Soldiers, also called the Delayed Entry Program (DEP), which Ian Gilbert, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania, recommends. “It sets you up so much,” he says. Ian met with a recruiter after checking out the Army on Instagram, and now he’s working in the program with other recruits who’ve earned their high-school diploma or an equivalent, have a proven command of the English language, have no record of “major misconduct,” and pass the military entrance processing stations (MEPS) physical. 

“You gain structure. You gain discipline,” says Ian, who attends weekly training sessions as a civilian and is happy to be getting a head start on enlisting.

This route may let high-schoolers join now and ship out for basic training up to 365 days later — relieving some pressure if someone needs time to see commitments through or just think on things a bit.

As for recent Marine enlistee Jade, she wants to study forensics and serve as a communications specialist. And though she understands that joining the military can take you “out of your comfort zone” — an understatement when you factor in the instability in the Middle East — that’s a risk she’s willing to take for a chance at low-cost education and lots of life-skills learning. Then, she says, “I can go into what I want to do.”