Military age

“ The careful reader will observe in scanning the data afforded by the Roster that the ages of the soldiers almost entirely range between those of eighteen and forty-five years, these being the respective limits of legal enlistment; at the same time everyone is well aware that a large part of the army was made up of boys in their early teens; also we know full well that many a man went in long after reaching the maximum age for military service. As a fact, then, very many men lied their ages up or down ”

“ Something had come down from of old, or had been acquired in adversity: a saving health for this nation. War was the regular annual business; all the male population of military age took part in it; and military age did not end too early. ”

“ On an average forty thousand young men become of military age annually, but, as the government does not need and cannot pay so many, about one-third of this number are drawn by lot for service, so that the actual time spent in the army is two years instead of five as required by law. ”

“ If I had the ordering of these matters, fifty should be the tenderest age at which a recruit might be accepted for training; at fifty-five or sixty, I would consider him eligible for most kinds of military duty and exposure, excluding that of a forlorn hope, which no soldier should be permitted to volunteer upon, short of the ripe age of seventy. As a general rule, these venerable combatants should have the preference for all dangerous and honorable service in the order of their seniority, with a distinction in favor of those whose infirmities might render their lives less worth the keeping. ”

“ There would have been more men who really remembered what war meant and its lessons, for the new generation lacked the true sense of what conflict was and went about it light-heartedly. So the need of strict military discipline generally has to be relearned with each war. The same is130 true of hygienic policies in the army. There are, thus, many political, social, and even business follies that would have been avoided had the wisdom and experience that only old age can bring been more dominant. ”

“ The Veterans who serve in the wars, and move in the midst of wounds for so many years, enter upon the military service from their youth, and quit it in old age: and to obtain a few days of repose in their old age, when age itself begins to weigh down those whom the wars do not break down, how great hardships do they endure ”

“ Military service is obligatory for all men, for 20 years, beginning with the age of 18. The first 3 years are passed in the preliminary division, the next 12 in active service, and the last 5 years in the reserve. ”

“ The profession of arms was so popular in the North, that they could always find a sufficient supply of able-bodied men. Their average age on enlistment was twenty-two years, a period of life not too young to render them incapable of enduring [109] the hardships and sufferings of military service, nor too old to unfit them for learning that discipline without which an army would soon degenerate into an armed mob. ”

“ From the age of twenty to that of forty-five, every Frenchman physically capable of military service is a soldier. Each commune complies yearly a list of its young men who have attained the age of twenty during the preceding twelve months. ”

“ It would—except for the military turnover. As it happens, our boys are all enlisted in the reserve corps of the army at the age of six, and from that time forth are trained for the next war. So rigorous is the discipline that fifty per cent never reach sixteen. This is, in fact, one of the great merits of the system, as it ensures the survival of the fittest. At sixteen the youths are enrolled in the active army, and are sent to the front to face the boys of Zu. They then are offered the hope of being permitted to retire from military life at eighteen, if they should reach that age. ”

“ The greatest generals have looked upon sound constitutions to be as essential to soldiers, as bravery or military discipline. Count Saxe refused soldiers born and bred in large cities; and sought for such only as were bred in mountainous countries. The King of Prussia calls young soldiers only to the dangers and honours of the field, in his elegant poem, Sur l'Art de la Guerre, chant 1. Old soldiers generally lose the advantages of their veteranism, by their habits of idleness and debauchery. An able general, and experienced officers, will always supply the defects of age in young soldiers. ”

“ Candidates must be over seventeen and under twenty-two years of age at the time of entrance into the Military Academy; no modification of the law in this [78] respect can be made; but any person who has served honorably and faithfully not less than one year as an officer or enlisted man in the army of the United States, either as a Volunteer, or in the Regular service, during the war for the suppression of the Rebellion, shall be eligible for appointment up to the age of twenty-four years. ”

“ It seems to be the theory of all military usages, in fact, that soldiers are to be treated like children; and these singular persons, who never know their own age till they are past middle life, and then choose a birthday with such precision,—"Fifty year old, Sah, de fus' last April,"—prolong the privilege of childhood. ”

“ Let us adduce a few facts with a view to show how far the physical training of the young soldier now in vogue conduces towards the evils of which we have spoken. According to the statistical report of the Army Medical Department for 1859, it appears that there were 16,553 soldiers under twenty years of age, and 30,389 men under twenty-five years of age. Now if we look into the returns of the military hospitals for any one year, it will be seen that sixteen per cent. of the patients are recruits under two years’ service. ”

“ The Government is now very properly proposing to enlarge the draft age limits to include all the men of fighting age, all the men of the ages which furnished the enormous majority of the soldiers of the Civil War. The number of men in the excepted classes should be greatly reduced. There are too many exceptions. It is earnestly to be hoped that the plan will include the institution of universal obligatory military training of all our young men [208] of eighteen to twenty years old as a permanent policy. ”

“ AGA, in the Turkish army, is the same as a general with us.
AGE. A young man must be 14 years old before he can become an officer in the English army, or be entered as a cadet at Woolwich, in the English academy.
Persons are enlisted for soldiers from 17 to 45. After the latter age, every inhabitant is exempted from serving in the British militia.
By a late regulation in England, growing boys may be enlisted under 16 years of age. These recruits are chiefly intended for the East-India service.
In the United States 18 to 45 is the legal age for militia and regulars. ”

“ Twenty-five years hence, our whole present army will be beyond the age of active military service, and will have left to their children only their example, unless we establish, by their aid, some system of warlike training that shall be available for the future. It is one thing to have a military generation, and quite another thing to have a military people. ”

“ Let a man go out to war from twenty to sixty years, and for a woman, if there appear any need to make use of her in military service, let the time of service be after she shall have brought forth children up to fifty years of age ”

“ Every man in Italy is liable to military service for a period of nineteen years from the age of 20 to 39. All young men on reaching the age of 20, if passed medically fit for military service, are divided into three categories—first, those who are taken by lot for color service ”

“ The average age of the privates was something under twenty-five, and that of the officers thirty-four. I may here add, from my own observation, that an officer's rank could in no degree be predicated from his age. Generals, colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants, had been all appointed at the same time and without reference to age or qualification. Political influence or the power of raising recruits had been the standard by which military rank was distributed. ”

“ Other provisions of the Act divide the available manhood of the country into six classes ranging in age from 20 to 45 and subject to selection according to military necessity, number of dependents and order of physical fitness. ”

“ Fit for service strong, healthy men, from 18 to 45 years of age, of a certain height, and not subject to fits; are considered fit objects for service, and may be enlisted into the United States regiments. ”

“ As I have said, our military law has been amended giving the President authority to call additional increments of men from time to time as needed. It has also been amended to permit him to register and classify all men that reach the age of 21 years. ”

“ All males register for military service in the year of their 18th birthday. A March 1963 amendment to the law lowered the eligible age for induction from the year of the 20th to that of the 19th birthday. Because more men have been available than were needed to maintain the desired troop levels, not all fit young men reaching conscription age each year have been inducted. ”

“ Naturally, on my trip I was most interested in watching the training of our fighting forces.
All of our combat units that go overseas must consist of young, strong men who have had thorough training. An Army Division that has an average age of 23 or 24 is a better fighting unit than one which has an average age of 33 or 34. The more of such troops we have in the field, the sooner the war will be won, and the smaller will be the cost in casualties. ”

“ But as the Major pointed out, age doesn't mean a thing in this war. Kids and grown men alike can turn out to be heroes with the right stuff. And, not to boast, there are a couple of points in our favor. We're pilots, experienced ones. We know that area pretty well from the first year of the war. We also speak German well. And—well, there're a couple of other good points about us, but skip them. ”

“ I take the age at which the training should begin at the end of the twentieth year, in order that, in case of war, the men in the ranks may be the equals in strength and endurance of the men in the ranks of any opposing army. ”

“ Today more than three-fourths of the officers commanding armies and army corps are less than 60 years of age. Some are considerably younger. A number of the army corps commanders are from 46 to 54 years of age, and the brigade commanders are usually under 50. There are, in fact, at the front extremely few general officers over 60, and these are men who are in full possession of their physical and intellectual powers. ”

“ I've worked it out on paper, and the mean age of your men is thirty-four years, or some five years more than the mean age of the entire population of East and West Looe. You see, on the one hand, you enlist no children, and on the other, you've enlisted several men of ripe age, because you're accustomed to them and know their ways—which is a great help in commanding a Company. ”

“ I found that this war was fought largely by boys, that more men enlisted at eighteen than at any other age. When I thought of those battlefields—and I thought of them much in those days—there was always that glory of youth above them, that impetuous, generous passion stirring the long lines on the march, the blue battalions in the plain. ”

“ How many of us younger ones who would be physically equal to such a task? But our veteran, in spite of his 67 years, is still young. He has none of the irritableness of old age, none of that enviousness which glorifies the past at the expense of the present. ”

“ The “boys” of twenty-three years ago are men of mature age; the men of that day are growing old. The faded and tattered battle-flags they followed are preserved in the State-houses. The old sword or musket hanging over the mantel is rusty with age. Every year the ranks are thinning. Wounds and disease, the legacy of battle-field, march and bivouac, are doing their sure work. ”

“ And in these days when the personal factor in warfare, at least so far as the rank and file is concerned, has been practically eliminated, and the tendency is to rely for victory more and more on artillery and material superiority rather than on personal qualities, the age, training and fitness of the troops is of less importance than in the old days when battles consisted of downright fighting. ”

“ During this period of training the recruits receive only one cent a day, besides clothing, guns, and very simple fare. The term of service has recently been extended from two to three years, to offset the increases of the German army. The average age of enlistment is about eighteen years, an age when the American boy is entering college or laying the foundation for a business career. In comparison, the French boy is heavily handicapped. ”

“ Are you not old enough to enlist in Christ's army? At your age, college men twenty-five years ago were brigadier-generals, dying at the head of their troops. Take your place, then, in the modern battle. Be a good soldier, not a shirk or a runaway. ”

“ It may be necessary in certain special classes, with special training and special experience, to secure their services for the army. When you come to the question of raising the age to 50, it does not mean that men between 42 and 50 are necessarily to be taken in order to put them into the fighting line. It may be that there are men of that age who are just as fit as men of 25, but I am sorry to say that that is the exception, and we cannot, therefore, depend upon men of that age altogether to make the finest fighting material. ”

“ Training in Youth and Manhood: Results.—When a youth reached eighteen, he began the distinctive study of warfare. For two years he was trained in the use of arms and skirmishing, and every ten days had his courage and his physique tested by being whipped before the altar of Artemis. Then he regularly entered the army, Military training. ”