Posted on Nov 28, 2013
Should 18 year olds in the military be allowed to drink alcohol?
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One of the most annoying things is busting college students for drinking. The problem is that you can at 21 at college but most graduate at 22-24, so part of the population can and part cannot.
But for the sake of argument, let's say that it is 21 and over, should military personnel be allowed to drink?
But for the sake of argument, let's say that it is 21 and over, should military personnel be allowed to drink?
Posted in these groups: 
Alcohol
Alcohol
Posted 12 y ago
Responses: 186
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As you all must know (?)
18 year old people
can drink in some States
and have for some time
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SN Michael Mygas
http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002591#chart2
List of 45 US States that allow underage alcohol consumption.
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MSgt (Join to see)
But according to the UCMJ, you MUST be of the federal drinking age of 21. Even if you are stationed and/or from whatever state in which the drinking age is under 21, the federal law and UCMJ are still in effect and you are still subject to obey them.
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This has been a discussion point for decades. For 18-20 year old soldiers it is hard to participate in company parties because there is always someone watching them. No Commander what's to be called out for allowing their younger soldiers to drink. Since this such a big issue, why not bring back, 3.2 beer.
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I remember beer machines in the barracks, and a lot more enlisted clubs and package stores on bases. As a chief, I had to process several members out of the service for alcohol related issues. It was never easy.
As a young enlisted member, I had to 'rescue' several shipmates from jail, take others to alcohol counseling, and fill a billet at a station for a guy who was killed when he rolled his car over in a ditch in front of the station while driving drunk and died. I remember sitting up all night several times with an E6 who had PTSD in order to distract him every once in awhile and turn the dial on the the weapons safe to keep him from getting a gun and killing himself.
It is sad to see the effect alcohol has on the lives of military members and their dependents. If a correlation exists between old enough to fight and old enough to drink then I would be in favor of raising the fighting age.
I know it is an unpopular to take any position against a time honored tradition such as drinking, but I choose to think of it not as a position against drinking, so much as a position that supports the well-being and long life of American soldiers, sailors, and their families.
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While there are a lot of good arguments to allow 18 year olds to drink alcohol, (and I agree with most of them) from a medical standpoint, I think having the age as high as we do actually makes thing a little better for us overall. The human brain takes an average of 25 years to fully develop and alcohol inhibits the ability of the brain to do so. And once the brain has reached that point, it will not continue to develop. If you slowed the process earlier in life it will not make it up later on..... However, with that being said, we once had a policy here in San Diego to allow Military members to drink at the age of 18 on base. This was an attempt to keep young Sailors and Marine's from going down the road to Mexico. The police was revoked several years ago and we seem to have more alcohol related incidences’ (DUI's, public intoxication and under age drinking) then ever before. Weather that comes from not allowing 18 year olds to drink on base or not, I personally can't say, but it would be nice to see some kind of study on it, to see if we can slow down the ARI rate.
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Military should be allowed to drink on base at 18. They should also know if they go off base and get busted then they face the consequences. But on base... absolutely.
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At 18 you are an adult in the eyes of the government. From 18 to 21 you don't mature enought. Get enought young people together 18 or 21 they will act the same. Over seas the drinking age is 18 on and off base. From my understanding it's up to the installation commander to set the drinking age.
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" You can convince a man against his will, but he'll be of the same opinion still" Donald L. Liggett 1976 my Father. USAF, CIA
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SSgt (Join to see)
The thing that has always been (for the most part) is that you cannot legislate morality or outcomes and prohibition actually made things worse. In that situation while we knew alcohol's ability to ruin lives, what can we do? House arrest outside of work?
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