A New York woman has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Navy, claiming her years-long ambition to become the first female Navy SEAL was derailed by bureaucratic delays that caused her to miss the age cutoff.
Amanda S. Reynolds, 41, alleges that Navy recruiters dragged their feet on advancing her application and later informed her she would be too old to qualify for the Naval Officer Training Command in Newport, Rhode Island, by the time she graduated. The maximum age for the program is 42.
“The opportunity… was kind of taken away from me. I would like that to be reinstated,” Reynolds told The Post. “I would just like the outcome to be determined by the merits instead of by some sort of technicality.”
A dream deferred by inaction
Reynolds said she could have attended Officer Candidate School as early as February. “But they delayed my application without reason or cause, and then they told me I was too old,” she said.
A resident of Woodbury, Long Island, and an attorney by profession, Reynolds first sought to join the Navy in 2018. Burnt out from 12 years in litigation, she saw service in the SEALs as a more “noble cause.”
An experienced long-distance runner and SCUBA-certified swimmer, Reynolds said her physical lifestyle aligned naturally with the rigors of special forces training. She described her pursuit of a SEAL position as “Viking-like” in a personal statement submitted to the Navy.
“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.”
A family legacy of service
Reynolds noted that military service runs in her family. Her grandfather served in the Norwegian Ski Patrol, her uncle was a U.S. pilot shot down in the Pacific during World War II, and her brother currently serves 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 in her application.
Delays, legal trouble, and a missed opportunity
Despite being “sworn into” the Navy in Brooklyn in 2018, Reynolds claimed she was never assigned or deployed. The Navy, however, said it has “no record of service” for her and noted she completed “enlistment paperwork” in 2019.
Reynolds later relocated to Utah, continued practicing law, and revisited her Navy enlistment in 2020. That same year, she was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence—a misdemeanor that was ultimately dismissed in 2023.
Back in Long Island, Reynolds resumed her pursuit of a SEAL position, only to be nudged by recruiters toward a legal role in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. She said recruiters reassured 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 according to Reynolds, the application “was not submitted” and was “unjustifiably delayed” by recruiters.
The Navy has declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Barriers remain despite policy change
The Defense Department officially opened elite military units such as the Navy SEALs and the Army Green Berets to women in 2016. However, no woman has yet completed the grueling process to become a SEAL.
For Reynolds, the lawsuit represents not just a personal fight, but a broader challenge to how the military handles the ambitions of women pursuing combat roles.
“It was never really about me being a female SEAL,” she said. “It was just about me being a SEAL who happened to be a woman.”
