The kids we send to war

When I deployed to Operation Joint Forge / Joint Guardian in 2001, soldiers from various Army Airborne units would bunk in spare rooms in the Aviano AB contigency dorm enroute to the Middle East. We'd see them on the flightline getting geared up, and they'd look as professional and disciplined as you'd expect. But I was always struck by how young they seemed when they were off duty back in the dorm, watching movies, playing video games, chatting online, talking about girls, like care free high school students playing soldier. This article about troops in Iraq gives a sense of what I mean. Here's an excerpt"

Like the teenagers and college students across America who sit on couches late on weekend nights and into the next morning, these soldiers spend their free hours on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital killing one another in Xbox and PlayStation2 games such as Halo and Mortal Kombat. Between guard duty and patrols and shifts at the dining facility, they gather to crash fast cars, play volleyball with buxom women and mimic warfare.

(Also take a look at this interesting, tangentially-related commentary on high school students and video games.)