In WWI and II boys as young as 15 were being routinely passed by recruitment selections for training and subsequent deployment to the front. Officially every last one was over the minimum age, but many, many blind eyes were turned when evidence of youth was available.
It's unlikely to occur in today's world though with the masses of identification methods available to establish a person's true age. In T2K, once the nukes fall though, I'm fairly sure we'd see a large increase in youth recruitment as identification such as drivers liciences, birth certificates, etc became lost, or stolen for the ability to enlist and get a "free" meal ticket.
My guess is that once 1998 comes to a close, and transport to Europe is slowed to nearly the point of complete stop, the risk of being sent to combat would radically diminish in the eyes of somebody far from Alaska or Texas. could well be a surge in volunteers at this time.
Could also be a reason why CivGov were able to cobble together units to send to Yugoslavia. Half may well be conscripts, but a sizable chunk might be volunteers eager to keep food in their bellies and give a littel payback to those they perceive nuked their homes and families.
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives.
Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect"
Mors ante pudorem
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