In the other thread I suggested raising the age for military service to 21.
50+ years ago I marched for giving 18-year olds the right to vote. My reasoning was the same as most people’s - if you were old enough to be drafted into the military and be sent off to Vietnam, you should be allowed to vote, drink, and do everything else adults could do.
It took me a few years to realize that was the wrong approach. Instead of marching to lower the voting age, we should have marched to raise the age for military service.
The military doesn’t need a bunch of teenagers to be cannon fodder anymore. It needs recruits with the ability to think, as well as the patriotic spirit to serve their country. Other posters in this thread have mentioned that many recruits use their GI benefits to pay for college. IMHO that’s the wrong reason to agree to enlist. For that matter, the skills someone learns in the military are only adjuncts to the fundamental reason for being in the military.
The U.S. needs to have ways to, as @steronz said, “Take kids directly out of high school, put them to work in a very structured environment, teach them a skill. Give them an opportunity to move away from any bad influences at home.” Dumping them on the armed forces to force them to grow up isn’t fair to either them or the military.