An aspiring G.I. Jane is furious and has decided to sue the US Navy after her dream of becoming the first female Navy SEAL was shattered as military recruiters kept delaying her application for so long that she surpassed the age limit to enroll in the force, according to a lawsuit.
Amanda S. Reynolds claims that U.S. Navy officials failed to process her application on time and later told her that she would no longer be eligible for Naval Officer Training Command in Newport, Rhode Island because by the time she would have completed training, she would have crossed the maximum age limit of 42, according to the court papers.
Shattered Dreams
"The opportunity . . . was kind of taken away from me. I would like that to be reinstated," Reynolds, 41, told The New York 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 wanted to join the Navy in 2018. "I was working in litigation for 12 years, and I kind of got burnt out working 24/7," Reynolds, the Woodbury resident, said.
Reynolds, a passionate long-distance runner and swimmer with SCUBA certification, said that her athletic lifestyle was just perfect for joining the special forces.
In a personal statement included with her enlistment application, Reynolds wrote of her "Viking-like pursuit" to become a SEAL.
"As an American, I was born with what I can only describe as an inexpressible, indefatigable nature to dream," she wrote in her enlistment application. "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."
Turned Down for No Fault of Hers
Reynolds said that military and public service run in her family. Her grandfather was a member of the Norwegian Ski Patrol, her uncle flew as an American pilot during World War II and was shot down in the Pacific, while her older brother is presently working as 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.
However, her dream will never be realized. Reynolds is representing herself in a federal age-discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Navy. She said she was officially "sworn into" the Navy in Brooklyn back in 2018 but was "never assigned anywhere or deployed."
Reynolds completed her "enlistment paperwork" in 2019, according to the Navy, but has "no record of service." She then relocated to Utah, where she worked as a lawyer, and revisited her enlistment in 2020.
However, that year, she was arrested for an alleged DUI in July — a misdemeanor charge that was eventually dismissed in 2023, according to court documents.
Reynolds later returned to Long Island and tried to join the Navy SEALs. However, she found that recruiters would often urge her to use her legal skills in the military's Judge Advocate General's Corps.
"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.
