It happened in the late 1970s and early 80s but had been hotly debated for a very long time before that. Some states had the drinking age set at 21 while others were 18 or 19 for a long time and in the late 70s it was decided at the national level that 21 was the appropriate age. The leading cause of death among young people was and still is car crashes and the vast majority of those involved alcohol. The realization was that while 18 and 19 year olds were still hanging out with kids in their teens, most 21 year olds had moved on and were hanging out with people who were older and were less likely to buy alcohol for under age kids because they were less likely to be hanging out with them in the first place.

So by raising the drinking age they reasoned that it would reduce the number of traffic fatalities among teenagers. It worked but not nearly as well as they had hoped. The death rate did in fact go down but not enough to really matter. Kids being the resourceful people they are were still perfectly capable of obtaining access to alcohol regardless of the drinking age and were still wrapping their first cars around trees and telephone poles at an alarming rate or dropping dead from alcohol poisoning. Simply put...there are those that will die young and there really isn't much that anybody can really do to stop them.

Here in Washington the drinking age was 21, but we simply went to Idaho or Canada where the drinking age was 18 to get access to alcohol or found somebody that would just buy it for us. As a teenager I remember that almost nobody bothered to check ID when we bought beer and didn't really care that we were just a bunch of teenage kids. It wasn't until the laws changed and levied huge fines against businesses that got caught selling beer to under age kids that the access started to get difficult.

 

if a group of soldiers are letting their hair down when serving overseas, then let them all have a drink

when back home, the rules are clear - everyone knows the rules in their own country, so they should abide by them
it is wrong for an underage soldier to be asking for a drink in a public bar, because it is the bar tender and the owner that will face the wrath - a little bit of consideration goes a long way

 

No beer
Not allowed in a strippers' bar
Not allowed in the brothel
Can't do porno

here have a gun...
see that F-16,
you are going to fly it...

 

Gingerman92.....Thank you very much for your service. I will buy you anything you want to drink, anywhere you want to drink it! Even in the cantina at my V.F.W. post where I am a life member.