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Today's 18-year-old service members can do almost anything under the sun - get married, vote, buy a house, go to adult prison, smoke a cigarette - but they can’t have a cold one after "shield wounded from falling brass and enemy fire," as Sgt. In those days, military commanders abroad were more concerned with killing Nazis and frequenting French tavernes than obsessing over the official military drinking age. Prior to the 1980s, military leaders had more leeway to allow on-base drinking under 21, and during World War II uniformed military personnel were routinely served in pretty much any bar in the U.S. The difference? Anderson fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. But unlike Anderson, if Brown had chosen to partake in the American pastime of drinking a beer after coming home, she might have been prosecuted for underage drinking. Like Anderson, Brown was barely 19 years old when she was in battle.
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After the bomb struck one of the vehicles, Brown grabbed her aid bag, ran through enemy gunfire to reach her wounded comrades, and used her own body to shield them from falling mortars. Monica Lin Brown (then a private first class), who was awarded the Silver Star for saving the lives of five of her fellow soldiers when a roadside bomb exploded amid a convoy of Humvees on patrol. and likely did what most red-blooded Americans did after the war: He had a beer. Samuel "Lee" Anderson was injured by a land mine after intense fighting, he was transported back to the U.S. When 19-year-old Purple Heart recipient Marine Cpl. The writers are not employed by Military Times, and the views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Military Times or its editorial staff. Editor's note: The following is an opinion piece.