Whats with all the smoking?

.............This is an alternate reality movie. In this reality there is no Surgeon General.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.

I thnik the smoking is another subtle way where the director wants the audience to know that the kildren has no regard for their own health because they have zero memory from the past and it's like they know they're going to die young....if you notice in the whole movie only kildren smokes the "regular" folks don't...
also in the begining scene kannami told kusinagi he doesn't trust commanders who doesn't smoke.

How many soldiers do you say light up in an aircraft hangar with tanks fo diesel etc. laying around? Even half a century ago, this wouldn't of happened.

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.

Some good comments here but also, if you watch old War films about flying, particularly those set in WWI then you will note that the "Commanding officer that smokes and drinks too much in order to cope with the stress of the job" is a rather standard character.
At least part of the reason for all the smoking is, in part a "Homage" if you like to those old films (since Bay`s "Pearl Harbor" I`ve come to extremely dislike that term).
Incidently, they never light up INSIDE the hanger but just outside, still a bit foolhardy but not completely stupid, which is frequently what smokers actually do in a working environment when a smoking ban is in force.

"Any plan that involves loosing your hat is a BAD plan.""