Amanda S. Reynolds, Long Island lawyer sues US Navy cause they ruined her dream of re-inventing herself as a US Navy SEAL cause they said at age 41 she was too old.
When a burnt out middle aged lawyer wants to re-invent herself as GI Jane ….where there is a will there is a way?
A Long Island-based lawyer aspiring to be the US Navy‘s ‘first female SEAL‘ has sued the Navy, who she blames for having ‘delayed’ her application and later rejecting it as a result of her being ‘too old.’
According to her suit, Amanda S. Reynolds, 41, alleges US Navy officials failed to advance her application, only to then later tell her in the fall that she would no longer qualify for Naval Officer Training Command in Newport, RI, because she’d be over the age limit of 42 by the time she graduated, according to court papers.
🔥🚨BREAKING: This ‘Wannabe GI Jane’ is suing the entire US Navy after her dream of becoming the first female Navy SEAL came to an end over her age.
Amanda S. Reynolds, the wannabe-G.I. Jane dream of becoming the first female Navy S.E.A.L. ended because military recruiters… pic.twitter.com/hwv008bWnz
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) April 19, 2025
Amanda Reynolds dream to reinvent herself as Navy SEAL robbed?
‘The opportunity . . . was kind of taken away from me. I would like that to be reinstated,’ Reynolds told the nypost. ‘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 sought to join the Navy in 2018.
‘I was working in litigation for 12 years, and I kind of got burnt out working 24/7,’ the Woodbury resident said, calling the SEALs ‘such a more noble cause.’
An avid long-distance runner and swimmer who is SCUBA certified, Reynolds said the special forces ‘kind of jibed with my physical pursuits.’
In a personal statement submitted as part of her efforts to enlist, Reynolds wrote of her ‘Viking-like pursuit’ to be a SEAL.
‘As an American, I was born with what I can only describe as an inexpressible, indefatigable nature to dream,’ she wrote. ‘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.’
Service runs in the family, Reynolds said. Her grandfather served in the Norwegian Ski Patrol; her uncle was an American World War II pilot shot down in the Pacific, and her older brother is an FBI agent. Which converts to, ‘now it’s my turn. Obviously.’
Wrote the aspiring GI Jane: ‘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.’
But her dream stalled almost from the get-go. And here’s where it gets weird.
Amanda Reynolds wayward application to become SEAL
Reynolds, who is representing herself (naturally) in her Brooklyn Federal Court age-discrimination case against the US Navy, claimed she was ‘sworn into’ the Navy in Brooklyn in 2018 but ‘was never assigned anywhere or deployed.’
Reynolds filled out ‘enlistment paperwork’ in 2019, according to the Navy, which had ‘no record of service’ for her.
She then moved to Utah where she worked as a lawyer and revisited her enlistment in 2020. But she was was arrested in July 2020 for allegedly driving under the influence, a misdemeanor which was dismissed in 2023, court records show.
She returned to Long Island and again chased her dreams of joining the SEALs, only to find recruiters attempting to steer her to use her legal skills in the military’s Judge Advocate General.
She claims recruiters told her that ‘age waivers were always obtainable.’
‘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.
Social media responds to Long Island lawyer SEAL dream
The Navy declined comment on the litigation.
The Defense Department opened the military’s elite units, such as the SEALs and the Army’s Green Berets, to women in 2016 but no woman has ever finished the process to become a SEAL. Can anyone guess why?
‘It was never really about me being a female SEAL, it was just about me being a SEAL who happened to be a woman,’ she said.
Hint, the lawyer would probably also have been denied if she happened to be a 41 year old male attorney.
And then there were these comments below that caught this author’s eye, see what you think?
‘It’s an absurdity, that first, she enlisted, or sort of tried to enlist, with no prior service at age 35; did not, apparently, attend Basic Training, or ever actually serve in a unit; then insists she should be accepted into OCS, which she did not attend or complete, and then that she somehow merits an appointment into SEAL training.’
‘This is not someone with an excellent record of service, who met all the requirements, but was turned down from attending SEAL training. This is an overage never-was, who never served, somehow thinking she merited a slot, when there are many, far better qualified, candidates already in the service fighting for a chance.’
‘Aloha, I am 61 but identify as an 18 year old. I surf, skateboard, snorkel, hike, workout regularly. I also take high blood pressure and cholesterol medication and now wear glasses. Alas, as much as I feel younger, am wise enough to know I am old now. She should embrace her age and health and leave the Seals to those who are truly younger and fit for such a prestigious and difficult role. Thank you Seals.’
‘She only got this dream at age 41? We need the best mentally and physically fit for special forces. She ain’t it. She wasn’t it five years ago. She won’t be next year. Deal with it.’
‘Middle age dreamer keeps dreaming. re-invention dream that takes up taxpayers and military time and money to see if she makes it.’
‘It was never about being female SEAL it was about being a SEAL who was female.’
