Age Restrictions on Alcohol Relative to Military Eligibility I expect you to protect our country. I am going to give you a gun and when ordered to I expect you to take another human life without question. I expect you to be willing to die and watch others around you die. However you will not be allowed to drink alcohol and if you do you may face military and criminal charges. This is what we tell our soliders that are under the age of twenty-one. While most of us agree that the legal drinking age should be twenty-one plus there should be exceptions for our military personal who we expect to protect our country and die if needed. The minimum age to join the military in the United States in seventeen years old with parental consent or eighteen years old without parental consent. If we consider this in greater detail we can surmise that at age eighteen you are old enough to make the choice to join the military and put your life at risk. You are also given a great responsibility of protecting our country. For those that do not enlist in the military their responsibilities are typically much less. While there are certain to be exceptions, most young adults between the age of eighteen and twenty-one are concerned with school, work, friends and dating. Their level of maturity and understanding on life is not fully developed and they are just starting to explore the world on their own. Prior to 1984 some states did allow people to buy and consume alcohol at the age of eighteen. However the federal government has passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. This act withholds revenue from states that allow the purchase of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21. However you may be surprised that some states do allow consumption of alcohol by young adults in a private setting. Some states also allow consumption of alcohol for young adults when in the company of their parents or at certain locations. While all of this may show we should allow our underage soldiers to drink we must look at the other side of the story as well. Even though we are giving them great responsibility does that mean they are also mature enough to handle decisions when it comes to alcohol? One could make the argument that their maturity has not changed and in fact they are more dangerous underage drinkers. They have access to weapons and have been trained in hand to hand combat. Most of us have had any experience where someone we know got into a fight because they had too much to drink. Can you imagine how much worse that situation would have been had your friend had training to kill people with their bare hands? Another issue with letting them drink early is the toll it will take on their bodies. Drinking can lead to heart disease and liver disease. Obviously then longer you drink the higher risk you have of these diseases. Do we not owe it to the people that protect our nation to help them make healthy choices? Crimes and death related to underage drinking are alarming. An estimated 5,000 people die each year from underage drinking. Additionally 50,000 people experience alcohol related date rape and 43,000 are injured by someone who has been drinking. While we can argue that the consumption of alcohol by young adults should be controlled we need to also considered the situation and the ethical dilemmas. A utilitarianism may say the greater good is to have no one drink until the age of twenty one as they are then more mature and can make better decisions. However my view, as relativism, is that if you are given the great responsibility to protect our country and to take another life then you should be able to consume alcohol.

References
Goodman, Lenn E. (2010). Some Moral Minima. Retrieved from http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/pub/content/3791e7e1-ae04-476b-9c2e-a64dfd68d149/SOC120.W2.Goodman.pdf
CDC, (2012). Alcohol and Public Health Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/mlda.htm
Rod Powers, (2011). US Military Enlistment Standards. Retrieved from http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/enlage.htm
Wetterling, (1998). Drinking Pattern and Alcohol related Medical Disorders. Retrieved from http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/3/330.long
US Department of Health and Human Services, (2007). The Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking. Retrieved from http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/alcohol_advertising_promotion/Call_To_Action.pdf