Wannabe GI Jane sues Navy after her dream of becoming first female SEAL comes to a crashing end over age

Yahoo

19-04-2025

A wannabe-G.I. Jane's dream of becoming the first female Navy S.E.A.L. ended because military recruiters delayed her application so long that she aged out, she claimed in a lawsuit.
The US Navy officials failed to advance Amanda S. Reynolds' application, then told her in the fall that she would no longer qualify for Naval Officer Training Command in Newport, RI, because she'd be over the age limit of 42 by the time she graduated, according to court papers.
'The opportunity . . . was kind of taken away from me. I would like that to be reinstated,' Reynolds, 41, told The Post. 'I would just like the outcome to be determined by the merits instead of by some sort of technicality.
'I could have gone to officer candidate school in February, [but] they delayed my application without reason or cause and then they told me I was too old,' she said.
The Long Island lawyer first sought to join the Navy in 2018.
'I was working in litigation for 12 years, and I kind of got burnt out working 24/7,' the Woodbury resident said, calling the SEALs 'such a more noble cause.'
An avid long-distance runner and swimmer who is SCUBA certified, Reynolds said the special forces 'kind of jibed with my physical pursuits.'
In a personal statement submitted as part of her efforts to enlist, Reynolds wrote of her 'Viking-like pursuit' to be a SEAL.
'As an American, I was born with what I can only describe as an inexpressible, indefatigable nature to dream,' she wrote. 'And so, dream I do — never forgetting it is only under the auspices of this great nation's military who protects my inalienable right to do so that I may.'
Service runs in the family, Reynolds said. Her grandfather served in the Norwegian Ski Patrol; her uncle was an American World War II pilot shot down in the Pacific, and her older brother is an FBI agent.
'I hope to serve as this country's first female Navy SEAL Officer, so that there may be a second, and a third, and an infinitesimal many more female candidates who might impress upon you these shared values in the very same way,' she wrote.
But her dream stalled almost from the get-go.
Reynolds, who is representing herself in her Brooklyn Federal Court age-discrimination case against the US Navy, claimed she was 'sworn into' the Navy in Brooklyn in 2018 but 'was never assigned anywhere or deployed.'
Reynolds filled out 'enlistment paperwork' in 2019, according to the Navy, which had 'no record of service' for her.
She then moved to Utah where she worked as a lawyer and revisited her enlistment in 2020. But she was was arrested in July 2020 for allegedly driving under the influence, a misdemeanor which was dismissed in 2023, court records show.
She returned to Long Island and again chased her dreams of joining the SEALs, but found recruiters were quick to urge her to use her legal skills in the military's Judge Advocate General.
She claims recruiters told her that 'age waivers were always obtainable.'
'I was really gearing up to participate in the pipeline process, really taking all the right steps to proceed with the application,' she said. But the app 'was not submitted' by recruiters and 'unjustifiably delayed,' she claimed.
The Navy declined comment on the litigation.
The Defense Department opened the military's elite units, such as the SEALs and the Army's Green Berets, to women in 2016 but no woman has ever finished the process to become a SEAL.
'It was never really about me being a female SEAL, it was just about me being a SEAL who happened to be a woman,' she said.