Well Billy, in my defense, I was born five or six years after 18 year old guys were flying B-17 bombers in the Euro theater in WW2, so, with that as my historic perspective perhaps I am expecting too much of these damn Millennials, or whatever they call themselves these days...
Again, the generational gap raises its ugly head...not my fault.
Kinda doubt there were many 18-year-old PILOTS flying B-17s, even back in the day when they were dropping like flies from the sky. They might have been 18 when they entered the service, but you don't train them in flying, navigating, map reading, weaponry, evasion, survival, etc. in a month or two.
Admittedly there were a lot of gunners and even some bombardiers in that age range. But the pilots tended to be older and, hopefully, wiser than when they entered the Army Air Corps or Air Force as kids.
When I was 18 I was dumber than a bag of compost, as are most people that age. And dumb people do dumb shite.