Newest Army recruits: the over-35 crowd (The Christian Science Monitor)

FORT JACKSON, S.C. - In an Army platoon where the average age is 21, they call him the old man. But when the platoon marched onto Range 18 one day last week in basic training, Pfc. Russell Dilling - at 42, the oldest-ever recruit in the modern Army - delivered. He was among a dozen of 60 recruits who dinged enough targets to qualify for the rifle certificate on his first try - a major psychological hurdle for would-be soldiers. Private Dilling's success on Range 18 was a quiet affirmation for a ...