Quote Originally Posted by SoCaliSon View Post
Last time I checked we weren't forcing people to enlist anymore. People who are fighting right now for our country signed up to be there, And while I personally think they all Deserve a huge Beer,I don't think we should reconsider the drinking age for civilians because you can volunteer for the military at 18? Voting is one thing, and that age has been changed...and rightfully remains at the legal age for enlistment. A 20 yo Navy Private volunteered to serve a country that enforces a drinking age, and our country enforces these limits for a reason. Military duty, the policies surrounding it, and the enlistment age should have nothing to do with the legallity of alcohol, or the age at which civilians should be able drink it. Unless I am mistaken once you join the miltary you sign away a lot of the rights that you posses as a civilian anyway, and you live under a whole different set of rules. Civilian Life and Military Life are completely different, and knowing how some poilicies with our military run, I am suprised alcohol is permitted in the armed forces at all. For the sake of the soldiers I am glad they are allowed to enjoy the occasional drink, But the argument about fighting for our country when you can't even have a drink lost its weight when we stopped forcively drafting kids into the military right out of highschool.
I am an E-5 in the US Navy currently Stationed at Camp Pendleton Ca sorry socalison but i have to hit you on something lol in the Navy we are called seamen, firemen, airmen, corpsmen or constructionmen until you hit E-4 where you earn the title of petty officer as for the ability to drink at age 18 on base that is no longer so and its changing everstill when i first enlisted 7 years ago the drinking age is the same as what ever country you are currently in unless as in the case with the navy you are out to sea for 45 consecutive days then you get what we call a beer day where as long as you are 18 you get 2 and only 2 beers even though you are technically on US Sovereign territory. but as i mentioned before they are starting to change the rules and alot of captains of ships are enforcing when you pull into a port of call that even if the legal drinking age is 18 you cannot drink unless 21 as well as some units in the Marine corps are doing the same thing as much as it appears a vast majority of the general public thinks that the age should be 18 it is highly unlikely it will change. as for us in the military you are correct we do live under a whole different set of rules first and foremost if i show up late for work i can literally be grounded (as most people would call it just like a kid) and have pay taken away for up to 45 days. any mistake in my life weather it be personal or at work can ruin the rest of my life to the extent i cannot even get a job at McDonalds or Walmart. we take that burden along with the rest such as being away from our friends and family for extended periods of time with pride and honor because we that is what allows all of us to be doing what you and I are doing right now in this very forum...