[meatwadttm]

Okay, the legal voting age is currently 18, but the enlistment age is 17. WTF's up? You can fight and die for your country, but you can't vote?

What are your opinions, I believe that 17 should be the legal voting age due to the military enlistment criteria, but maybe alot of 17 year olds still lack the necessary knowledge and will just vote for anyone.

What are your thoughts?

[Number One Andrew]

Or maybe we should raise the enlistment age to a solid 18.

[XtremeAaron]

Im 18 and i dont even know who to vote for. To be honest I haven't even really researched the candidates.

Its the same thing with alcohol, i can fight and potentially die for my country but i cant drink a beer.

[Lord Headley]

If you're in the military, you can drink at whatever age. There's the loophole my friend. So the question is are you man enough to fight and get booze? Or are you a puss and do not deserve the right to drink at 17-18? lol

[XtremeAaron]

wow i never knew that.
i rarely drink anyway though, just a ***** i hear often.

[Tomba]

I say keep it at 18.

[mspainter]

You can't rent a car either. I heard a story a while ago where some soldiers came home for chistmas and had to hitch a ride from some good citizen because they couldnt get a car.

Enlistment is enlistment, its not like its a draft or anything. That stays at 18. Drinking age? That should stay at 21 too. It isnt like people cant get their hands on alcohol anyway, you all know that better than I do.

[nickxjones]

I would love to see the voting age lowered. I had better knowledge of politics than most people who are of age to vote when I was 14 (not saying it should be lowered to 14 though).

[mspainter]

If it was our country would be very left wing.

Then again, thats because I live in Connecticut and I am surrounded by liberals.

[big_balla]

Well then if you're drafted at 17 then you can vote, but only if you're drafted.

Who cares what age you can vote.. even people of age to vote dont vote.

[ArmoArchangel]

Alright look:

Enlistment is at 17 with Parent's approval and signature. Normal enlistment is 18.

You can't drink at whatever age in Army unless the post commander has changed the regs for the safety of his troops. For instance there was a post near the Mexican border that their younger privates would go to Mexico to drink. They were getting robbed and all that kind of stuff. Post commander changed drinking age to 18 on post so that they wouldn't go to Mexico.

Post commander made the decision for the safety of his soldiers. Other than that, normal state laws for drinking apply.

Voting is at 18
Enlistment is 18 (17 with signature from Parents)
Drink is 21.

[kenny_1491]

this just goes on with the other gov. thread goin on right now, but with a totally different aspect of gov. it just needs to be reformed. but I feel that if you can fight and die for your country, you should be able to buy cigarettes and beer.

[Lord Headley]

My friend is in the air force, he's 18, they're allowed to drink. Whatever the official rules say are BS, it's the real world, and there will be drunk military members under the age, that's for sure.

- Brian

[ArmoArchangel]

Alright fine, there will be underage drinking. There will also be Article 14s. If he is allowed to drinking underage it is because of a failure of his Chain of Command to maintain order and discipline within the unit.

Violating State Law (in this case the 21 or older bit) is in violation of Article 92 of the UCMJ (Uniformed Code of Military Justice).

But hey, I'm not a Wingnut so I give a **** about standards.

Whoever is allowing them to drink is not doing his job. Unless the age was lowered by higher chain of command in order to maintain the security and safety of his soldiers, there is no reason he should be drinking under age.

The airforce might be different, but UCMJ applies to every service member, Zoomie or not.

[bobide]

Originally Posted by Number One N00b

Or maybe we should raise the enlistment age to a solid 18.

noez not logics!

[TonyD]

I'm fine with it being 18. Hell—enough morons vote already, so maybe we should make it harder. Sure, there are a number of intelligent, informed 17 year old kids out there. Unfortunately, though, they are washed out by a sea of idiots.

[Alpha]

Ever since I turned 18, I thought a lot about that magic number. Why 18? Where did that magic number come from? What is different between you when your 17 and 18?

Personally, this real world is scary. They should get rid of all of these special ages and start teaching kids how to live in the real world instead of creating this fantasy child world for them. Because once they hit 18 and mommy and daddy aren't there anymore, its very disorienting. And unless you've got balls, your not going to make it out well.

[hurdlebeast]

parental consent at 17 is key. I wonder if i could get away with drinking @ 18 with parental consent....hmm....

seriously though, i say drop drinking age to 21, leave enlistment @ 17 w/consent. if you can drive a car, fight for your country, and be tried as an adult, then you should be able to drink a few, too.

[big_balla]

^^ You can't vote with parental consent at 17, so what's your point?

[D FO]

Originally Posted by hurdlebeast

if you can drive a car, fight for your country, and be tried as an adult, then you should be able to drink a few, too.

i think thats a poor and overused excuse to be able to drink.