I wrote a section of my novel recently. And now I fear it's based on faulty information.
Basically, I need to know about the "age of cut off" where the Army can't call you back into service anymore. Did it change? If it did change, when was that?
I was told that the age of cut-off was 35. So my MC is narrating (this is set in the future), and he's in his mid-40's, and when he was younger he was in the Army Reserves. And he is explaining that 35 was the cut-off. So when the Iraq War started back in 2003, he was already 35 and he had to wait for his 36th birthday before he'd be in the clear and no longer be eligible to get called. But is that notion about the age of 35 incorrect? Or was it correct back then and no longer correct today? Or would it be correct today but was not correct back then? (I am so confused!)
On other matters ...
I was also told that as long as you were enrolled in college, you could not get called. But then I was told that was also incorrect, and that it is a rule that has changed over the years. This presents another problem for my MC because he enrolled in an acredited program during he summer of 2003 just to avoid getting called before his 36th birthday.
So have I totally screwed up my story and I now need to fix it in a major way?
Basically, I need to know about the "age of cut off" where the Army can't call you back into service anymore. Did it change? If it did change, when was that?
I was told that the age of cut-off was 35. So my MC is narrating (this is set in the future), and he's in his mid-40's, and when he was younger he was in the Army Reserves. And he is explaining that 35 was the cut-off. So when the Iraq War started back in 2003, he was already 35 and he had to wait for his 36th birthday before he'd be in the clear and no longer be eligible to get called. But is that notion about the age of 35 incorrect? Or was it correct back then and no longer correct today? Or would it be correct today but was not correct back then? (I am so confused!)
On other matters ...
I was also told that as long as you were enrolled in college, you could not get called. But then I was told that was also incorrect, and that it is a rule that has changed over the years. This presents another problem for my MC because he enrolled in an acredited program during he summer of 2003 just to avoid getting called before his 36th birthday.
So have I totally screwed up my story and I now need to fix it in a major way?
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