41-Year-Old ‘Wannabe GI Jane’ Sues U.S. Navy After Failing to Become First Female SEAL

A 41-year-old Long Island attorney is taking the U.S. Navy to federal court after claiming recruiters deliberately dragged their feet on her application to become the first female Navy SEAL — until it was too late.

Amanda S. Reynolds, a self-described “Viking-like” warrior, has filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the Navy, accusing officials of stalling her application process long enough for her to miss the service’s age cutoff, according to The New York Post.

“I could have gone to officer candidate school in February,” Reynolds told The Post. “But they delayed my application without reason or cause and then they told me I was too old.”

Reynolds claims she was misled at every turn, with recruiters assuring her that age waivers were “always obtainable.” Yet despite what she describes as years of diligent preparation and physical training — including long-distance running, swimming, and scuba certification — her file was never submitted in time.

“The opportunity … was kind of taken away from me. I would like that to be reinstated,” Reynolds said. “I would just like the outcome to be determined by the merits instead of by some sort of technicality.

According to Navyseals.com, “Applicants must be from 17 to 28 years old. Waivers for men ages 29 and 30 are available for highly qualified candidates. Men with prior enlisted service as SEALs who are seeking to become SEAL Officers can request waivers to age 33.”

The Woodbury, NY resident had previously worked for over a decade in litigation law before deciding to pivot to military service in 2018. After being sworn into the Navy in Brooklyn, Reynolds claims she was never assigned to a unit, never deployed, and never processed into active duty status.

The Navy, meanwhile, disputes the timeline, stating it has “no record of service” for Reynolds and that her enlistment paperwork was first filed in 2019.

After a brief move to Utah, Reynolds says she revived her efforts in 2020, only to be sidelined by a DUI arrest — a misdemeanor charge that was later dismissed in 2023. Still, she pressed on, eventually entering the Navy SEAL Warrior Challenge Program in 2023 with the hope of breaking the gender barrier in the elite special forces unit.

But instead of advancing her candidacy, recruiters allegedly pushed her toward the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, citing her legal background.

“I wound up bringing a lawsuit in federal court in New York in order to pursue an age discrimination claim against the Navy in order to have my opportunity reinstated. So that’s where I’m at now, in the stage of the process. And hopefully, with the help of the courts and judicial intervention, I’ll be able to pursue that route as a career, notwithstanding my age,” she said.