Somehow This Factoid Seems Profound - I Just Don't Know Why

[ThomWV]

I just ran a cross a little fact that I was unaware of. It is a meaningless little thing on its face but it stirs something in me and I just can't put my finger on it. Maybe one of you all can make something of it.

Prior to 1943 the minimum draft age was 21. After that it became 18.

[Warpy]

1. They were desperate for bodies in WWII

because it was a fight to the death with Germany and Japan. Losing to the monsters in either country was unthinkable.

The age should have been raised at the end of the war, but Truman wimped out.

[ThomWV]

2. You know - in a heartbeat of undertanding that hit me out of the blue

We could talk about this because I am sure you came so close to being right that everyone with sense would agree with you - and so would I have until just about 15 seconds ago.

You see, it seems to me we weren't losing that many people that we had to drastically increase our draft numbers. So why did we need more people? Here is the epifiny that I had, we needed additional people not to go and fight the war, but to hold the areas we had already taken. The increased draft numbers were not to add to our fighting force, it was to add to our occupying force. The two are not the same thing, not at all.

Of course I could be dead wrong - and I mean absolutly wrong.

[Warpy]

4. Or we could both be dead wrong

but the age was decreased when they were planning D-Day. They knew they'd have to throw enough bodies at the Germans to simply overrun them.

Truman still should have been ashamed of himself for not turning the age up after the war.

[aquart]

7. You're thinking of a different war.

At the beginning of our entry into World War II, we weren't winning a damn thing. It scared the bejeezus out of the people back home because we saw the possibility of actually losing. We weren't prepared for war, we weren't equipped for war. We lost thousands of men in a day. Day after day. (Which is why my mother looks at our losses in Iraq and says, "Sissies."

We had NO intentions of becoming permanent occupiers. I inherited an amazing guidebook put out by the US army about how to behave in occupied Japan. I don't know when I've been so proud to be an American. It reminded our people that the war criminals were being tried, that the ordinary Japanese citizen had no say at all in the decision to go to war, and that we were only staying as long as it took to set up a democratic government. And that is exactly what we did.

[aquart]

6. Not just bodies.

I remember that my uncle wasn't allowed to train as a pilot because he was "too old" at 23. He became a bombardier instead. The outrageous quickness, energy, resilience, and eagle-eyed vision of the young warrior-age male mattered. We were actually hoping that would help them survive. (Although the other thing I remember is my mama saying, "It was all the younger brothers who died.")

[Warpy]

10. They didn't draft my dad until he was a relatively old 27

He'd been in Europe since 1938 as a civilian engineer, first with the RAF and then with the USAF once this country got into the war.

We both always figured they finally drafted him because it was cheaper than paying his salary. They just left him where he was, doing the same job.

[frogcycle]

3. it was lowered to 18 for WWI also n/t

[Ivote]

5. Yes & The Voting Age Was 21

That was lowered to 18 because of Viet Nam when so many 18-21 were going to war and being killed but couldn't even vote

[heidler1]

8. The fact that they lowered the draft age to 18 caused me to enlist

in the U.S.C.G. about 3 days before my 18th birthday. My Mother thought having one son in the Army was more than enough and the Coast Guards men that I knew told me the food was good so that clinched it.

[kiva]

9. Maybe because it flys in the face of our current ideas about the draft.

During WWI, all men between the ages of 21 and 45 had to register for the draft. I've wondered about that, since young men and women (at 18) were broadly seen as adult so I'm not certain why the draft age was higher.
My great-uncle lied about his age and enlisted at the age of 14 to fight in WWI, so I'm not sure how representative the draft law was about the actual age of soldiers in this war.