One point: I've never had a problem taking orders from someone less than half my age because, when it really matters, he is just as mature as I am. I wouldn't last two minutes in a clan whose upper ranks were filled with candyassed, 'l33t' little pukes who think that they themselves are better than me just because their K/D ratio is better than mine. (If someone is going to give me an order, he had better bloddy well have some respect for me, and I for him, otherwise I am gone.)
OTOH, if, in the heat of battle, a 29th private gives me a direct order, I'm not going to bust him one; I know that he is entitled to the benefit of a doubt just because he is a fellow member, and his need to get something done has a higher priority to him at that time than wasting precious seconds asking politely. That's the way it should be; because we all have respect for each other and know it, we can weather any unintentional lapses that would cause many groups to devolve into screaming matches and ragequits. Heck, in drills and scrims, a PFC or even a private might be placed in command over a captain, and nobody so much as bats an eye.
That's why it is so important that when we recruit we look not only in how well the person plays, but how maturely they play. We've had to (regretfully, in some cases) decline recruits for being too young that, except for the pitch of their voices, could be easily mistaken for someone two or three times their age. OTOH, we've kicked out members who were past their forties for acting like they were four.
If you were to ask TSgt. Humphreys (AFAIK our oldest member) why he was still with us after almost three years, still taking orders from people more than three times younger than him, still not even close to his final RL rank, I bet he'd answer something like 'because I've consistently found more maturity here than in the real military.' ... :cough: ... Well, maybe not, but I think that he would agree with me that once you've got a good thing, you hold onto it with both hands.
So, we do. Always, and all ways.
