Then-Navy Petty Officer 1st Class David Goggins crosses Death Valley in California during an ultramarathon in this undated photo. Goggins recently reenlisted in the Air Force following retirement from a 20-year active duty career that ended in 2016. (Brandon Rogers/U.S. Navy)
Retired Navy SEAL David Goggins built a brand on his refusal to quit, and now the 51-year-old is doubling down by signing up for the armed forces yet again.
A military fitness icon and author whose followers and the Defense Department have dubbed “the toughest man alive,” Goggins recently reenlisted in the Air Force at the rank of master sergeant.
He was assigned to the Special Warfare Training Wing, service spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Military Times. She did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday about Goggins’ reenlistment.
“It’s worth noting that the Air Force has welcomed special operators from other services to cross train into Special Warfare for decades,” Stefanek said.
Goggins is the only service member who has completed SEAL training, Army Ranger School and the Air Force’s Tactical Air Controller training, according to his website.
He is well-known on various platforms for his grueling training feats, dramatic transformation to become a SEAL and former status as a Guinness world record holder. To achieve that feat, he did over 4,000 pull-ups in 17 hours.
Goggins began his military career at 19, when he enlisted in the Air Force as a tactical air controller with aspirations of becoming a pararescueman, he told the Navy’s All Hands magazine in 2018.
Then-Navy Petty Officer 1st Class David Goggins, left, crosses Death Valley in California during an ultramarathon alongside French competitor Albert Vallee in this undated photo. (Michael Lindsey/U.S. Navy)
However, he took a medical drop option after being diagnosed with sickle cell trait, according to his memoir “Can’t Hurt Me.” He continued his career as a tactical air controller until his discharge in 1999.
He followed that by becoming a Navy SEAL in 2001 and spent about 15 years in that role.
An age waiver was required for Goggins to reenlist, Stefanek said, though it is unclear what accommodations were made for him. According to the pararescue program website, candidates must be no older than 42 on the date of enlistment.
On a popular Air Force forum on Reddit, one user wrote, “Dude failed out as a youngin’. Bless him for trying again… at this age.”
Pararescue training, which the service says has an attrition rate of roughly 90%, follows a nearly two-year training pipeline.
The program includes emergency medical technician and paramedic training, Army airborne school, the combat divers course, parachutist school, and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school, or SERE, among other rigorous requirements.
Although he has long been active on social media, Goggins hasn’t posted to his Instagram account of 14 million followers since November. The caption of his final video read “Time is running out … you better stop thinking and start … doing.”
Speculation about his return surfaced last week through an Instagram post from the account Come.Sit.And.Relax, which frequently shares pararescue-related content.
A picture in the post shows Goggins in a camouflage uniform standing alongside a group of airmen wearing black berets. An accompanying message said the page creator had “kept quiet on this for months.”
Stefanek said details about Goggins’ training could not be released because of policy restraints on status and progression of current trainees, Military Times reported.
Goggins is not the first high-profile former military icon to return to service.
Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer reenlisted last April as a sergeant in the Marine Corps Reserve during a ceremony hosted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 15 years after receiving the nation’s highest military honor.
