Should There Be A Lower Drinking Age for Military Members?
An 18 year old can carry an M16, be trained to kill, and be killed in the U.S. Military. They fight side by side with older soldiers in the deserts of Iraq but the U.S. legal system says they cannot drink alcoholic beverages. Wisconsin State Rep. Mark Pettis (R-Town of La Follette), author of the bill, AB141 feels that, "If you are old enough to push the button on nuclear action, you should be old enough to have a Miller Lite."
The Wisconsin bill would allow military members as young as 19 to legally consume alcoholic beverages. "It seems unconscionable to me that we welcome these young men and women home from harms' way, some of them after barely surviving, but they can't imbibe in an adult beverage. I think it's quite hypocritical," Pettis said.
Representative Pettis’s bill would exempt members of the military from the legal minimum drinking age of 21. Military members residing in Wisconsin would be subject to the lower minimum drinking age of 19. In order to be served alcohol members of the military would be required to show a valid military ID and a valid Wisconsin driver’s license. It would not allow soldiers to purchase carry-out alcoholic drinks.
Even if the bill becomes law in Wisconsin there may still be a “roadblock.” A portion of federal highway funding depends on states having 21-year-old drinking ages.
So even if the bill passes in the Wisconsin Legislature it is contingent upon the federal government providing a waiver to its national minimum drinking age signed into law by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1984. The law required states to adopt a minimum drinking age of 21 or lose a portion of their federal highway dollars. Wisconsin legislators said they don't want to lose the money, which now amounts to more than $30 million, Pettis said. Pettis said he already has met with U.S. Republican Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. and Thomas Petri on the issue.
This is not a new issue. The idea that if a person can go to war they should be allowed to drink has been a controversial topic for decades. In the early part of the 20th century laws were reversed and an 18-year-old could drink a beer but not hard alcohol. The voting age was still 21. So you could go to war and you could drink but you could not vote in the elections that empowered individuals to make decisions about war and drinking. In 1971, during the Vietnam War, the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed, lowering the federal age of voting to 18. The Wisconsin Legislature followed, lowering its age of majority to 18, and allowing people at least that age to drink all alcoholic beverages. Wisconsin's law remained that way until 1984, when lawmakers bumped the age to 19, and later to 21, to comply with the federal minimum drinking age law.
The verdict is still out. Below you will find the legislative history of Bill 141.
