Dead Yanks

Lately I have been watching the daily obituaries on the The News Hour. After several months of this I began to wonder of the statistics of it all. In Vietnam the average American dead was 19. The average recruit was under 21. The only time in the past that armies have not had the demographics of 85% under 25, 10% 25-35, and 5% over 35 is during times of mass mobilization. The other exception is "mercenary" groups like the French Foreign Legion, or the British equivalent the Gurkhas. What surprised me was that a lot of the pictures that would show on the honor roll would someone other than the "expendable" 20 year old private. The problem with losing 35 year old staff sergeants is that beyond the human cost, which is bad, it takes longer to train a sergeant than even a officer. The Soviets proved by their absence that NCOs are vital to an army. The American army is now dealing with their personnel shortfalls with recruiting more teenagers straight from high school.