I've always thought this should be changed. If you have an active duty military ID you should be allowed to drink. It would help the people already in and act as a great recruiting tool!
Never really spoken to a recruiter, and (don't know how many times I have to say this) i'm not a dude. But actually, while on active duty, someone under the age of 18 is allowed to drink if the base they're stationed at is outside the U.S.
That's something I don't understand about the US. You can legally spawn another human being but can't drink? You can legally serve in the military but can't drink? It seems crazy from an outside perspective
i dont think the "legally spawn another being" one is a fair comparison since thats based on biology and not legality lol but i do agree with the notion that if you can get married and go to war you should be allowed to drink. but i have always disagreed with the idea saying "this is when you are legally an adult but we are going to withhold these simple things all adults do from you"
I've been drinking for awhile and can honestly say that the people who drink irresponsibly are people who haven't been taught how to drink. It's not the age that's the problem, it's the sudden allowance of drinking that promotes binge drinking. This is just my own experience though
in australia we can drink at 18.....were still here. In germany you can drink at 16 and they have very low alcohol related problems with their youth. It's not about the age when you can drink its about the education and social participation.
i would second the responsible drinking thing, as a child growing up alcohol was a thing we did as a family and i learned growing up to enjoy it without getting tipsy or drunk and i think it heavily influenced the fact that as adult i never even really got around to drinking much until i was like 26.
I will third the responsible drinking thing. I was actually encouraged to drink at home at around 12 (my parents are crazy, mmk) but I had a practical lesson in why that was a bad idea (see previous brackets). I am now 19, legally allowed to drink in Canada, and have never had more than a sip of alcohol.
There's a Monty Python skit about this from the 1970's. That's how old and stupid this argument is. What is drinking going to do for you? The only thing it's even done for me is help me make more stupid decisions.
I'm having trouble finding statistics about soldiers' age and what their duties are. I suspect that most under-21 soldiers aren't exposed to active combat situations and work more with logistics or engineering or other important but safer roles, but I can't find any stats to support or refute that guess. Anyone know of some good sources?
From personal experience- the military doesn't care about the age of combat troops. Most grunts were fresh out of high school. Another thing; most guys end up grunts because of low test scores, the military wants the smarter people doing the more complex and complicated jobs.
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