16 year old recruits in UK?

[Jimbuna]

At 18 they can vote and believe you me....that takes real courage when you look at the voting options these days.

[BossMark]

My nephew joined the Coldstream Guards when he was 16, then 3 weeks after his 18th birthday he was in Afghanistan. Then three years later he was aloud to leave due stress and other personal problems.

His proudest moment was doing trooping the colour in 2006 and 2007

[Jimbuna]

I've a friend (a pensioner now) who was also a Coldstreamer, he fought in Kenya and has some tremendous stories to tell when he's had a few.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by BossMark

My nephew joined the Coldstream Guards when he was 16, then 3 weeks after his 18th birthday he was in Afghanistan. Then three years later he was aloud to leave due stress and other personal problems.

His proudest moment was doing trooping the colour in 2006 and 2007

My brother had a Marine under his command that was 17 years old this was also in Afghanistan according to my brother the 17 year old was more mature than most of the other 18~21 year olds in his unit.He turned 18 while in Afghanistan.

Just some whino "rights" group if you ask me.

[eddie]

My Father (who is 89 years old now) needed parental consent to enlist in the USMC right after Pearl Harbor.

[Oberon]

My great-grandfather was one of the many who lied about his age to join up for the Great War. At least it's harder to do that these days.

When did Britain change it?
It used to be 171/2 a few years back

Ap and "Human Rights Groups" why not complain about the age our enemies are recruiting at instead of the Brits?

In case you didn't notice, they complain about all of them.


@ Berbunch

They aren't able to go to enter a combat zone until they are 18.

They aren't supposed to go to enter a combat zone, the deployment of underage troops to Iraq showed that the British military sometimes screwup the paperwork.

I'm in two minds whether it's ok or not, for some 16 year old with crap schooling and crap family life it can make them really mature quicker than their school friends and give them the family and support they've needed for years.

Or they could end up like Mike Philpott.
Given the relatively small size of your national forces, ex-servicemen do seem to be proportionally over represented in your prison population.

[fireftr18]

Here in the US we have our "military academies." High schools with a military type curriculum. We also have JrROTC (Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps). That's a high school level military club.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by fireftr18

Here in the US we have our "military academies." High schools with a military type curriculum. We also have JrROTC (Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps). That's a high school level military club.

Just wanted to mention the JROTC and saw you already did, though I think you can join them already in Junior High.

I see only two references to nations and their recruitment policies other than the UK

Perhaps you should look some more about all the different countries (and non state elements)they complain about.
If you want to complain about what a group complains about then maybe looking at what the group complains about will give your complaint more weight that just going into it off one brief news article.
Lets take one sample. Occupied palestinian territories.
Hamas....they complain
Fatah...they complain
PFLP....they complain
Islamic Jihad...they complain
PRC...they complain.

Would you like to do Afghanistan too or maybe Iran or Iraq or Chad or any of the others you think they don't complain about?

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Just wanted to mention the JROTC and saw you already did, though I think you can join them already in Junior High.

No you must be in 9th through 12th grade to join JROTC.The Junior part of the name is because ROTC stands for reserve officer training corps.ROTC was established in the 1916 to allow male students attending college to go through military training in order to become officers upon completion of their degrees.This was done to bolster officer corps prior to the inevitable involvement tin WWI.In modern ROTC programs both males and females are allowed.

JROTC as an off shoot of that program these are found in high schools and are intended to encourage students to enlist in the military and to also become officers by either getting accepted into on of the 4 US military academies or by attending any college that has an ROTC program.

Membership in an ROTC program requires that person to serve an 8 year term as an officer in whatever branch the ROTC program was.Membership in a JROTC program comes with no obligations what so ever the person is not required to enlist in the armed forces.

However a person who was in a JROTC program for 2 years gains an extra rank upon completion of basic training and a person that was in a JROTC program for 3 or 4 years receives two ranks upon the completion of basic training.It does not matter what branch the JROTC program represented.

ROTC has over the past 50 years become very valuable as a little over 38% of all officers in each branch attended an ROTC program making it the most common source for a military officer.With modern ROTC programs the member must serve a term as an officer.Back during the Cold War up until the end of the Vietnam War ROTC was a requirement on some college campuses but the people completing at that time where not required to serve as an officer.

I am not sure the contribution of JROTC but I would estimate that at least in my time in the USAF around 1 in 4 people had been in a JROTC program in high school.It must be of some value other wise each branch would not spend the money on the programs.

The most rare type of officer is one who went through OCS officers training school these are all former enlisted.Of course enlisted men can sign up for programs where they are allowed to attend a college full time and go through their branches ROTC program.Additionally each year at the 4 military academies has a limited number of slots for young lower ranking enlisted that get selected by their commanding officer to attend their respective branches this is a very high honor and very difficult to earn less than 1% of enlisted members receive such an invitation.

[Platapus]

In my first tech school, we had a 16 year old troop. It was a bit young to be thrown in with a bunch of 18-20 year olds.

It would, of course, depend on the maturity of the individual 16 year old. Unfortunately, regulations can't be written like that and must be applied across the board for all 16 year olds.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by fireftr18

Here in the US we have our "military academies." High schools with a military type curriculum. We also have JrROTC (Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps). That's a high school level military club.

There's also the Civil Air Patrol of the US Air Force Auxiliary for kids as young as 12.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

In case you didn't notice, they complain about all of them.

I see only two references to nations and their recruitment policies other than the UK. In one line they compare the UK to those countries (the countries they mention are in fact ones that are run by brutal dictators who kill or imprison thousands of their own people every year) and in one line they mention three that have lower recruiting ages.

No where did I see one complaint about the Iranian Basiji using youths for urban pacification, Palestinians indoctrinating children to fight Israel, or the Taliban strapping bombs on to five year olds and telling them that a Koranic verse engraved on a piece of scrap will protect them from the blast of their bomb.

[Skybird]

16 years is too young to let kids go to vote, candidate for offices, let them drive cars without adult's surveillance, let them get full legal access to hard drinks, fully legalised sexual intercourse without any age restrictions, and so on.

The only two things coming to my mind that seem to be exceptions from this ager scheme, are exposure to religious indoctrination - and exposure to military indoctrination.

I wonder if right the vulnerability of the still not fully formed out character and intellect and the small amount of life experience have something to do with this desire to access the young while they are as young - and suggestible - as possible.

The military should not be allowed to approach anybody below the age of consent. And I think age of consent set at 18 is too low for many things in life and regarding many individuals - at 18, many still are not "adult". I'd prefer 20 years in many cases.

Oh wait - to battle the constantly falling applaus for parties, German politicians in some federal states have made elections accessible for even 16 year old now. Well, the same critical questions as for religion and military apply (ignoring for a moment that I am against a general right for voting anyway).