How about raising the age for military eligibility to 21?

[donttread]

I'm generally a fan of rolling back laws that designate when you are adult enough to make certain choices. But the pro-21 drinking age people tell me there is some science behind that law. And there is At least some. However that same science, less than fully developed frontal lobes, should be an argument to not allow 18-20 year olds to sign themselves up to get shot at. The discrepency is completely illogical. We are literally saying to 18-20 year olds : "You are not mentally mature enough to handle alcohol. But you ARE SOMEHOW menatlly mature enough to choose to put your life in harms way at the bidding of people you don't even know in places posing no direct threat to your country. Now one way or the other that's fucked up.
How can our nation have it both ways? And what percentage of those who enlist t 18 would still enlist at 21?
Also do you personally think these two age restrictions should
1) Remain as they are
2) Both be 18
3) Both be 21
4) Be reversed because drinking is generally LESS dangerous than war.

[Common]

You can join the miltary at 17 and get drafted at 18. The military knows it can train a human to do unnatural things much easier at the youngest age possible.

Im going to make an assumption that I have no facts to back it up with. If you raised the age of service to 21, they would have to start the draft back up for not enough volunteers. I could be off base but I think that may very well be the case.

[AZ Jim]

1

[Peter1469]

There is no reason to change the current age of 18 (or 17 with a parent's signature).

[Common]

1
That means what

[Beevee]

Those who do and those who can require those who can't to learn how they can.
When they can they become expendable leaving those who do and those who can to do more of what they do and what they can.

[Private Pickle]

Many kids out of high school who don't have the means to go to college would be limited in their choices for a career. I'm not a fan of that and as such believe 18 should remain the standard.

[The Xl]

Those who can't legally drink have no business fighting wars, especially fraudulent ones.

[AZ Jim]

That means whatRead the OP. Jeeze...*Eyes roll up*

[Trish]

You can join the miltary at 17 and get drafted at 18. The military knows it can train a human to do unnatural things much easier at the youngest age possible.

Im going to make an assumption that I have no facts to back it up with. If you raised the age of service to 21, they would have to start the draft back up for not enough volunteers. I could be off base but I think that may very well be the case.

I think you may be on to something. If kids haven't decided to go on to college by age 14 or younger then they generally do consider going into the military. As time passes between graduating school and doing nothing these kids start to realize that they can skip by in life after school without making any serious commitments. Raising the age would allow them this time to reconsider.

If you join the military at age 18 then aren't you permitted to drink on base, correct? So in essence the military has circumvented that little law.

Personally, I agree with the poster. If you can give your life at 18 then you should be able to drink.

[Common]

At one time the military in peacetime is a good gig. Regular, pay, medical, dental, free rent and food. Thats during peace time, now were in what seems perpetual war, now its a hard way to go to be in the military, constant never ending deployments, ripped from youre family.

The number of deployments is because of the vastly reduced military personel. When we had a million man army soldiers did one tour, 2 only if they had a much needed skill or they volunteered

[Private Pickle]

At one time the military in peacetime is a good gig. Regular, pay, medical, dental, free rent and food. Thats during peace time, now were in what seems perpetual war, now its a hard way to go to be in the military, constant never ending deployments, ripped from youre family.

The number of deployments is because of the vastly reduced military personel. When we had a million man army soldiers did one tour, 2 only if they had a much needed skill or they volunteered
The number of deployments to war zones has been greatly reduced.

[Common]

The number of deployments to war zones has been greatly reduced.
Just recently yes and they had to be because it was having lots of repercussions

[Common]

I think you may be on to something. If kids haven't decided to go on to college by age 14 or younger then they generally do consider going into the military. As time passes between graduating school and doing nothing these kids start to realize that they can skip by in life after school without making any serious commitments. Raising the age would allow them this time to reconsider.

If you join the military at age 18 then aren't you permitted to drink on base, correct? So in essence the military has circumvented that little law.

Personally, I agree with the poster. If you can give your life at 18 then you should be able to drink.

You can drink on base at 18, unless they changed it

[Peter1469]

You can drink on base at 18, unless they changed it

They changed it- not sure when.

When I was enlisted you could drink on base even if you were 17. Senior NCOs ran the enlisted club and kept some sort of order. Off post you had to follow local law. Drinking ages varied by state back then.

[Common]

1
Lol DUH I just realized what the 1 meant

[nathanbforrest45]

They changed it- not sure when.

When I was enlisted you could drink on base even if you were 17. Senior NCOs ran the enlisted club and kept some sort of order. Off post you had to follow local law. Drinking ages varied by state back then.
It also varied by country with most countries not caring what happened to American service men, they would just call the MP's or SP's when anyone got too far out of line. I spent about a month in transit barracks at Anacostia in DC . You could buy beer out of a vending machine there and there were sailors as young at 16 there at the time. The last high death toll war we had was Vietnam, there were 2.7 million people who served in Vietnam of which approximately 50,000 were killed. This was a very small percentage of the overall number in the service at the time. So the idea that "if you are old enough to die you are old enough to drink" doesn't really amount to much in my opinion.

Another point is only approximately 10 percent of military aged men actually served in the war. So maybe the solution is to say if you have an active duty military ID you can drink at any age but you have to be 21 or older if you don't

[nathanbforrest45]

1

Shouldn't that be 1)? It would certainly be clearer if it were.

[donttread]

You can join the miltary at 17 and get drafted at 18. The military knows it can train a human to do unnatural things much easier at the youngest age possible.



Im going to make an assumption that I have no facts to back it up with. If you raised the age of service to 21, they would have to start the draft back up for not enough volunteers. I could be off base but I think that may very well be the case.


Or we could have a smaller army and return to a "Common Defense" vs a common "offense"

[donttread]

1

Why ? What logic drives your opinion?

[donttread]

There is no reason to change the current age of 18 (or 17 with a parent's signature).


But they're frontal lobes aren't fully developed. Or is that exactly the point of allowing enlistment at 18?

[donttread]

Many kids out of high school who don't have the means to go to college would be limited in their choices for a career. I'm not a fan of that and as such believe 18 should remain the standard.
Well they'd be alive at least. But how do you feel about lowering the drinking age?

[Common Sense]

I know it's been brought up, but I did always find it weird that the government trusted 18 year old kids to carry a gun into battle, but not to have a beer.

[Private Pickle]

Well they'd be alive at least. But how do you feel about lowering the drinking age?

Maybe you should look into the ratio of people who have joined the military to those who have been killed in the military. The military is far from the most dangerous job. No one is talking about raising the minimum age of crab fishermen...

Drinking age should be 18. Europe does just fine with a younger drinking age.

[Trish]

Maybe you should look into the ratio of people who have joined the military to those who have been killed in the military. The military is far from the most dangerous job. No one is talking about raising the minimum age of crab fishermen...

Drinking age should be 18. Europe does just fine with a younger drinking age.

True - but in Europe many also introduce alcohol to their children much younger and in a controlled way so that they actually "learn" how to drink rather than go on drunk binges. We don't teach our children to be responsible because it's so taboo here.

[Private Pickle]

True - but in Europe many also introduce alcohol to their children much younger and in a controlled way so that they actually "learn" how to drink rather than go on drunk binges. We don't teach our children to be responsible because it's so taboo here.
If the age and taboo were less of a focus we wouldn't have that problem. I agree.

[Tahuyaman]

There is no reason to change the current age of 18 (or 17 with a parent's signature).

I agree.

[Tahuyaman]

True - but in Europe many also introduce alcohol to their children much younger and in a controlled way so that they actually "learn" how to drink rather than go on drunk binges. We don't teach our children to be responsible because it's so taboo here.


I lived in Germany for three years and discovered that this is not quite true. In Germany they have non alcoholic beers meant strictly for children.

Drinking alcohol was more accepted by kids in their teenage years, but they had the same issues with alcohol abuse as we do in the US.

[Cletus]

I know it's been brought up, but I did always find it weird that the government trusted 18 year old kids to carry a gun into battle, but not to have a beer.

Why?

There really is no similarity between the two.

[ripmeister]

Why?

There really is no similarity between the two.

Its about being able to make decisions for oneself. As a conservative I would think you would be all for that.

[Peter1469]

But they're frontal lobes aren't fully developed. Or is that exactly the point of allowing enlistment at 18?

Correct.

[Ransom]

Then change legal status. Cannot be tried as an adult for example. Cannot mature until 21, let's take donttread's offer here all the way. Why not 26, Obamacare lasts until you're 26

[donttread]

It also varied by country with most countries not caring what happened to American service men, they would just call the MP's or SP's when anyone got too far out of line. I spent about a month in transit barracks at Anacostia in DC . You could buy beer out of a vending machine there and there were sailors as young at 16 there at the time. The last high death toll war we had was Vietnam, there were 2.7 million people who served in Vietnam of which approximately 50,000 were killed. This was a very small percentage of the overall number in the service at the time. So the idea that "if you are old enough to die you are old enough to drink" doesn't really amount to much in my opinion.

Another point is only approximately 10 percent of military aged men actually served in the war. So maybe the solution is to say if you have an active duty military ID you can drink at any age but you have to be 21 or older if you don't


The point is that they are enlisted to and trainned to kill and die. The killing part winds up taking anawful toll as well. They often enlist to that risk before they are considered mature enough to drink. Less than fully developed frontal lobes are the reason they CAN sign up at 18 and that they CANNOT
drink at 18.