Quote:
Originally Posted by CamaroSpike23
im a maintainer as well (AMC=Alcoholics Moving Cargo), and ive watched too many people get hurt or ruin their lives (military or civilian) for drinking underage. the solution isnt to lower the standard and allow younger people to drink to lower underage drinking. thats like the "no student left behind" bs where they lower the difficulty of the class so that everyone can pass. im sorry if your kid slacks off and you dont make them do their homework. they can flunk the class and repeat it. but thats a different thread.
and i know that 21 isnt a magical age, i can honestly give you more people over the age of 21 that are worse when it comes to alcohol than those under or at that age.
but i regress to the screwing up their lives part. i have paperwork from 5 years ago in my pif for failing to comply to standards (my hair touched my ears). it cost me BTZ when i was up for it and has cost me a few other positions thruout my career, regardless of qualifications. now imagine how bad it would be on my pif if it were something more severe. ive got a friend in the military that has an A15, he's married with children and was forced to move back into the dorms (restricted to base), additional duty, and demotion. what did he do? he unknowingly provided alcohol to a minor. he was having a party at his house and some "guy" showed up with a fake id and said he was legal, that "guy" ended up driving back to base and got in a wreck, killed himself and 2 others. I did happen to drive by the accident the following morning after i got off work heading to my friends house, by the time i got there the SP's were already at his house putting him into cuffs. but i guess if we had lowered the drinking age, my buddy wouldnt have been punished... so i guess im for it now....:seesaw:
like i said before tho, if the "buzz" about drinking could be eliminated, i would have no qualms about lowering the age. but all i can imagine is a bunch of 18-20 yr olds (and probably even more younger than that who could pass for 18 with a fake id) all doing their "i can drink, i need to drink as much as i can to prove im not a pu$$y" thing. and i know, not everyone will do that, but there will be enough, and i can guarantee you that the number of alcohol/vehicle incidents will rise. but we wont have as much underage drinking to worry about, so i guess thats good. isnt that the point? to reduce the number of underage alcohol related incidents?
|
you can recover from an A15. one of the best chiefs I know had one when he was an airman. and shouldn't the paperwork for your hair be removed by now? hell if I was your supervisor I would have it removed. take it you haven't pcsed before. that stuff doesn't follow you. . .
the point is if we make it lower the sooner people will just accept it as another beverage option. granted you will still have those people that abuse it and you always will. those same people will abuse it weather they are 18 or 30. and those people that can't control their habits that influence their job performance should be taken care of (first try to educate them what adapt is, and then if that doesn't fix it kick them out). one reason I think the af should have had a pt test before I ever came in. . .
there should be privileges to serving your country and giving back to society. granted there are a few (AAFES no tax, gym, some discounts from retailers etc) but I believe it's just not right to say you can die for your country but you better not drink.
btw I got a feeling I'm either not explaining myself good enough or in the end we'll just have to agree to disagree. not trying to argue just debate this subject.