Clark Jordan went with his daughter to their local Army recruiting station in 2008. He had served many years prior, in the 1980s. His stint in the Army lasted for seven years.

When he went to the Arizona recruiters office, he was working as a master automotive mechanic. He laughed when the recruiter asked him if he wanted to rejoin.

Eligibility Questions

Even though the eligibility age was 42 at the time, and Jordan was 47, he could still join because of his prior service. Jordan said, "I was 50 pounds overweight and had to lose 10 minutes off my two-mile run time."

The economy was waning, and health care costs were increasing. As he considered rejoining, his daughter offered to help him train. Jordan was a wheeled vehicle mechanic during his first time in the Army from 1980-1987 and was stationed in Germany.

He stayed a specialist for his entire enlistment, not because of his on-duty work, but because he was frequently in trouble while off-duty. Despite his age, he decided to rejoin.

He made it to the rank of staff sergeant and is one year away from retirement. One of his soldiers even tried to find a soldier older via Google and came up empty, dubbing him "the oldest active-duty soldier."

Not The Only One

Jordan isn't the only one who has rejoined after a large gap in their service record. Staff Sgt. Monte Gould graduated from basic training in South Carolina. Now he is a 59-year-old Army Reserve soldier.

Though rejoining the service was not as simple as signing the papers and reporting for training. Jordan had to sign many waivers before he could report to Fort Sill.

He suffered a health scare during his third week there and needed to be hospitalized. After he recovered, he was sent to Germany. In 2011, he was deployed to Afghanistan.

While there, he was able to see his daughter, who was deployed in Kuwait, even participating in her promotion to sergeant back at Fort Campbell.

Source: Army Times