Actually by WW 2 standards they really weren’t all that young. Modine was already 30 years old and most of the rest were already over 25.
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Thanks, I fixed my post.
They sure made them look young in the movie.
But I guess a WWII serving 20yo was more…mature, compared to the 20yo today.
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“The average age of the fighting man in World War II was 26. In Viet Nam, he was 18.” to quote the documentary sampled in the song.
EDIT: I misquoted. it was 19.
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I dunno, the young 19 and twenty-something soldiers that I dealt with in the latter stages of my career were all the same ‘10ft tall and bulletproof’ young gobshites that we were at the same age. 
And I bet the Vietnam vets said the same thing about us, and the WWII vets said it about them and all the way back to when a young General said to himself “I wonder if I can get over the Alps with elephants?” 
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That gave me a chuckle
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You’re probably right.
I just stumbled across an article about young individuals and why they seem less mature these days and thst article blamed the economy. In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s the cost of entry into adulthood was much less than it is today. So young people must wait longer to settle down, find a job, find somewhere to live and start a family.
There were more to it, but that was the essence anyway. Made sense to me.
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Makes sense to me. Another thing I noticed about the young-uns is that they were definitely better educated than we were. When I went through Kapooka (boot camp) I was one of only a few in my Platoon who had completed High School, most of them had dropped out after Grade 10.
A lot of the soldiers I had serving under me had Uni degrees or at least a year or two of undergraduate study behind them.
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Yeah, that’s another thing that I’ve noticed. When I was in high school, that was the baseline. Only a few went on to college/university. Today it seems everybody and their brother has at least a masters degree…
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Huh, I didn’t even think about that, but it makes sense.
Discussions and lessons like this are why I love this place. 
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I have to think that if a similar worldwide situation like WW2 happened today, the current generation would surprise us. In every generation there are those who rise to the top in times of adversity, those who just continue to function (by far the biggest group), and those who are weak. We tend to hear about those at each extreme of the spectrum.
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Totally agree. The armed forces are a great melting pot, so one of the things I cherish most about my career is to have worked with people from all walks of life and from opposite ends of the spectrum.
But mostly it was about seeing them, quite often a young man or woman and the last you would expect; step up when needed and achieve something great… quite often with considerable risk and varying degrees of self sacrifice.
I take great inspiration in being surprised like that on more than a few occaisions.
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As an academic I can go on a rant about why that’s the case these days.
But talking about the rise in education among younger service members reminds me of the dyamic between the SGT and LT characters in Generation Kill. Roughly same level of intelligence and wisdom yet one was above the other in command.
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Formal qualifications are important, I wouldn’t want to fly on an aircraft if the pilot didn’t have them
But. They are exclusionary, i.e. ‘You can’t do X unless you have Y’.
So called life skills are hard to measure, but a good leader understands why you need a mix and will always take that ‘guy’ with the PhD in whatever as well that that person with the kind of rat cunning that only years of hard living can deliver… sometimes one over the other 
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I always say that a formal education is a shortcut to knowledge
But even with a master in engineering, you’re still only proficient enough for the trainee positions, when you’re fresh out of school. And that is as it should be. There are far too many peculiarities in a business or company, for anyone to learn it all in 4-5 years. So in many cases a degree is more or less a license to learn.
Same goes for doctors. Sure, they learn a lot at med school, but still have a lot to learn during their internship and specialization training.
Heeey… Where’s the topic?
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Um. yeah 
But I have enjoyed this conversation
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Stallone and the point of a college degree.
Wheels
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Here, I made another discussion thread about it. Good stuff.
https://forums.mudspike.com/t/education-vs-experience/16035?u=stormy801
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Today is the day…
First two episodes are released on 
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