The present study examines the role of hardiness and personality factors in predicting youth’s enlistment intention towards Indian defence services. The participants were (n = 2500) higher secondary school students from the four states (TamilNadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh). The youth with high intention to join army scored higher on the measures of hardiness construct and two personality dimensions i.e. Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Furthermore, results of logistic analysis confirmed that the hardiness and personality factors significantly predicted the enlistment intentions of youth. The implications for recruitment of youths for the Defence Services are discussed.