How a soldier is made

[monster]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

I doubt people were much older when sent to war in the past. Those kids have to be around 18 and that was the age many went to war in Vietnam and WWII. .

Originally Posted by Paul Hardcastle

In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26...
In Vietnam he was 19.

[jinx]

Myth: The average age of an infantryman fighting in Vietnam was 19.

Assuming KIAs accurately represented age groups serving in Vietnam, the average age of an infantryman (MOS 11B) serving in Vietnam to be 19 years old is a myth, it is actually 22. None of the enlisted grades have an average age of less than 20. [CACF] The average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age. [Westmoreland]

link

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Here are statistics from the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF) as of November 1993. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall):

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Average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date and birth date. Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action) [CACF]

Deaths Number Average Age
Total 58,148 23.11 years
Enlisted 50,274 22.37 years
Officers 6,598 28.43 years
Warrants 1,276 24.73 years
E1 525 20.34 years
USMC 0351 1,122 20.46 years
11B MOS 18,465 22.55 years

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by monster

In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26...
In Vietnam he was 19.

Then what is the average age of the soldier today? And just because the average age of soldiers in WWII was 26, which makes sense because of the draft age, doesn't mean that kids who couldn't grow any facial hair weren't sent to the front lines.