I started to ramble on about that, because your point certainly crossed my mind and I thought it might get mentioned. Intellectually and chronologically these students are adults, as are our fighting forces. "Children" is spoken from the heart and not the brain; as we might often say in tragic situation contexts, 'children' losing their parents, parents losing their 'children' in combat. It's not an indictment of the students' maturity. Just more embracing.
I agree and it's also a picayune thing to obsess about.