>Just out of curiosity, I'm not a big advocate of alcohol consumption, :-) but >doesn't it seem contradictory that it's acceptable to send a young man into >battle possibly to die, but not give the privilege of drinking. Or conversely, >if he is too young to drink, is he too young to go into battle? Until the >voting age was moved down to 18, it seemed the same with it.

I do not know about the US military, but the Canadian military allows all of its members, irrregardless of age, to consume alcohol on military establishments. In the good old days of rum rations on board ship, you did have to wait untill 18.