So they should just age out in poverty and die? Such people exist. To be clear, I'm 1000% against anything resembling a draft, but if an older person wants to, why stop them? A guy in my brother's medical doctor graduation class was 46 years old. Good thing nobody explained to him it was too late and he failed already.

In all seriousness, I do agree about the functioning knees part. But as long as it's voluntary, I don't see the downside.

A career as a doctor has a lot more upside than an entry level grunt.

It seems unhealthy for the sake of our military.

I'm not privy to the decisions about how staffing 42-year-old As infantry men is militarily wise, however.

> So they should just age out in poverty and die?

You referred to joining the US military as an E-1 at the age of 42 as a career path. As an Army brat, I can tell you that it absolutely is not. At that age, it absolutely is a job of last resort.

> So they should just age out in poverty and die?

I like how the options are "age out/die" or "be part of our disgusting military machine", no other options; people have no value unless they've already got money or can risk their blood.

Surely we can think of SOME option better than either of those?