Posted on 12/05/2002 6:42:01 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
Pfc. David Bennett said he probably will be more inclined to look for entertainment off Fort Bragg starting this weekend when clubs and bowling centers on the Army post go smoke free.
Jeanette Doles, an Army spouse, said she will be more apt to patronize smoke-free recreational centers on Fort Bragg.
Beginning Friday, Fort Bragg will comply with a presidential mandate requiring all military recreational centers to be smoke free or limit smoking to designated, separately ventilated areas.
Military officials estimate that 34 percent of the 1.4 million members of the armed forces smoke. Smoking and secondhand smoke pose health risks and create additional costs to the military for health care, officials say.
Fort Bragg is prohibiting indoor smoking at its five clubs and three bowling centers.
''Each one of those is going to have an outside area that's designated for smoking,'' Col. Victoria Post said. She is director of Fort Bragg's Community Activities and Services Business Center.
''At the NCO Club and the Officers' Club, there's going to be gazebos adjacent to the facility,'' Post said. ''At Sports USA, there's going to be an awning on the side where the volleyball courts are at now. The Yntema Club is going to have an overhang to the rear of the building. The Green Beret Club already has a back porch that's covered and an area that will be designated a smoking area.''
Pope to use fans
Pope Air Force Base plans to install exhaust systems at its club and bowling alley, but the work has not been completed.
''We're in the process now of going out and getting the bids and awarding the contract,'' said Lt. Col. James E. Welter, commander of the 43rd Civil Engineer Squadron at Pope Air Force Base. ''They are very simple little projects, not very costly.'' The changes will cost tens of thousands of dollars, he said. The money will come from proceeds from recreational activities, not tax dollars.
The changes were mandated by Executive Order 13058, signed Aug. 9, 1997, by President Clinton. The order prohibited smoking tobacco products inside all space owned, rented or leased by the executive branch of the federal government and in outdoor areas in front of air-intake ducts. The military received extra time to make changes in its clubs.
The policy has implications for people who work in clubs, said Peter F. Isaacs, chief operating officer of the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center at Alexandria, Va.
''We may not tell employees to enter areas where there is active or passive smoke if they don't agree to it,'' Isaacs said. ''It would apply to a custodial worker who might have to go into that bar after duty hours to clean the place and there's ambient smoke that's left. That's something that each individual manager has to work out with the employee.''
Smokers and nonsmokers blow hot and cold over the changes.
Pfc. Jon Beaudry is a smoker, but he likes the change.
''I think it's a great idea because of the children,'' said Beaudry, a 20-year-old from Michigan.
Beaudry said he would be willing to go outside for five minutes to smoke. Children were playing nearby as he spoke about 9 p.m. on a Friday.
''I'd still come here,'' Pvt. Sarah Arndt said with a shrug of her shoulders. Arndt, who is 18, of Michigan, describes herself as a casual smoker.
Playing pool
''I think it'll cut down on profits,'' said Pfc. Clint May on a Friday night at Sports USA on Longstreet Road. ''I think a lot less people will come here.''
May, a 21-year-old 82nd Airborne Division soldier from Ohio, likes to smoke while he is playing pool.
''I don't like the idea of taking in the secondhand smoke and being exposed to it,'' said Doles, a 28-year-old Army spouse from California. ''If people want to smoke, that's fine, but don't expose us to the dangers of it. If we had kids, I'd feel ever stronger about it.''
Sports USA is within walking distance of the 82nd Airborne Division area. Some people say the changes could make soldiers more likely to drive off post for entertainment, leading to an increase in DWI problems.
''If the soldiers have to go outside to smoke, they'll go to off-post establishments, which can lead to problems,'' said Sgt. Rod Stewart, a 35-year-old 82nd Airborne Division soldier from Ohio. ''I could deal with not smoking. A lot of people are really hooked.''
Opposition voiced
Mike Rubio, the head of security for Sports USA, said he thinks the smoking ban is bad idea.
''This building is for the soldiers,'' Rubio said. At Sports USA, soldiers can watch sports on large-screen TVs, drink a cold beer and walk back to their barracks, he said. Soldiers leaving post have to pay cab fare and are more likely to run into trouble, he said.
Pfc. Karin Gingras said she is a smoker, but she does not mind going outside to smoke.
''I think it's good,'' said Gingras, a 21-year-old from Boston in the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade. ''People have the right to breathe clean air.''
Spc. Robert Stephens, a smoker, is not happy.
''It's getting ridiculous,'' said Stephens, a 21-year-old from Havelock who also is in the 525th. ''They are treating us like criminals. You've got to go outside. Then you've got to go far away. Why cigarettes? No one ever went home and beat up their wife because they smoked too many cigarettes at the club.''
Robert Taylor, a 57-year-old retired master sergeant, likes to smoke and play Bingo three or four times a week at the Yntema Club on Gruber Road.
''My opinion, a club is a place of entertainment,'' Taylor said. ''I fail to understand how you can sell alcohol and not allow smoking. Nobody ever went out and ran over anybody because they had too many cigarettes. I ain't going outside in the cold to smoke if people's inside drinking liquor. Send them outside to drink liquor, too. Let's be fair about this thing.''
Taylor said he will find other places to go after indoor smoking is banned.
''I'll give K&W my money where I can sit and smoke and talk to my friends,'' Taylor said.
Judy Wilson, a nonsmoker who is 63, has been coming to the Yntema Club for 30 years.
''I don't have anything against them smoking or drinking,'' she said.
Positive attitudes
Initial surveys showed positive attitudes about the change, said Post, the colonel in charge of Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs on Fort Bragg.
''It is possible that we could see an increase in the customers,'' she said. ''Industry standards show it's varied. We could lose, we could maintain or we could actually gain. We are not going to really know for several months. We are sensitive to the numbers, of course.''
They expect our men and women to go overseas to horrific conditions, and yet they ban them from smoking a legal commodity! Second hand smoke is NOT a killer like the anti's with an agenda wants everyone to believe. Looks like the have succeeded with some of the folks in this article! Pity!
If tobacco and smoking is like mustard gas, why doesn't the Government just ban the darn stuff. I'm sick of them using tobacco to restrict, control and BAN the smokers! Chit or get off the pot!
Is that kinda like an ambient fart>
When I was in the service...the clubs were always complaining about lack of support from eligible members...let's see what this does to further depress the desirability of belonging to a 'membership' club.
borisbob, I hope they go broke. Would serve them right. Let the prissy noses support the recreational services on base. The adults can take their money down town!
Can you see the Officer's Club going smoke free?????
Yea, right! Try to tell a Colonel that HE has to go outside to smoke. LOL! Too funny!
It's the "little people" the base is targeting. "I" sure wouldn't want to tell an Officer he can't smoke!
Someone has done a good job of disinformation.
The changes were mandated by Executive Order 13058, signed Aug. 9, 1997, by President Clinton.
Why am I not surprised.
''It is possible that we could see an increase in the customers,'' she said.
BWAHAHAHAHA
Looks like the military AND the Government are starting to talk out of both sides of THEIR mouths! What's next? Not selling cigarettes in the COMMISSARY and BX??????
Just more control, that's all this is. We all know how basic training breaks a person down from being a civilian and builds them back up in the military mode. Yep. This is just more control.
However, this base isn't a basic training center, is it? Looks to me like they are making the NCO's the goat. Pity.
If I was a smoker, and they drafted me, I'd tell'm to go screw. It's not bad enought that you got take orders from some turnip who happened to get a degree in polsci and thus is qualified to be an officer, that you can get crushed, burned, rolled over and then there is the enemy, but you have to have the friggen Nanny State sniffing your boxers.....fugehendaboutit. I can see some recruiter right now. "Ah lets see, HS grad, no arrests, high on the tests, good, great, just the type we want. Oh, you smoke? Well it is kind of tough.....hey,hey...kid! Hey! Come back here..."
What a crock! I guess they don't know about the Government's own ORNL Labs doing research on Second Hand Smoke and throwing it out as a killer. They just want more control!
Statistics and Data Sciences Group Projects I think any anti who tries to dismiss the findings of the U.S. Department of Energy labs at Oak Ridge, should be confronted with the question: "Are you saying that DOE researchers committed scientific fraud and that their findings on ETS exposure are untrue?"
Sounds really rediculous, doesn't it!
Did they forget that tobacco is still legal??!!
But! If they make it a mandatory draft, the poor souls will have to just to take it. Sad, but true. If a poor young person is called to duty, and they smoke, well........good-bye smokes! You know it's the TI's way or the BRIG! ugh!
A casual smoker is often a gal who doesn't smoke around the office or at home when she's alone, but DOES smoke (a) when drinking and (b) after sex. A "casual smoker" also would smoke as an occasional stress reliever.
When I was single, I was amazed at the number of girls who said they were non-smokers - but lit up after sex.
Michael
"''I fail to understand how you can sell alcohol and not allow smoking. Nobody ever went out and ran over anybody because they had too many cigarettes."
Reminds me of a guy I met outside Atlanta's airport as we both caught a quick smoke between overpriced, delayed flights. He'd just learned that all the bars at the Et-lanta Aerodrome were smoke-free. Said he couldn't understand it.
Michael
||| Why cigarettes? No one ever went home and beat up their wife because they smoked too many cigarettes at the club.''|||
Probably true; however, *die hard* nicotine addicts may go off the deep end for the lack thereof....
You've just inspired me with a new theory (although not as complex as my OJ Simpson is not guilty of murder theory).
Tobacco is still "legal" BUT it seems to be gravitating toward becoming a *controlled substance.* The next step may be to give it a more stringent FDA classification, then require a *prescription* and collect even more "revenue" by its regulation....
Just a thought, a "seedling" of a theory. Only time will tell. Thank you for your indulgence.
The manager of the Bowling Center at Dover Air Force Base created a totally seperately ventilated set of lanes for smoking sometime back. The way it has been described to me is that it practically 2 different bowling centers altogether.
I've never been there, but have been told the smoking lanes do a more booming business than the non-smoking. this was told to me over the summer before the Delaware ban went into effect by an Officer, an NCO and 2 airmen that I have seen frequenting some of the same places in town that I frequesnt. Come to think of it - I haven't seen any of them in 2 weeks and none were at that time scheduled for immediate deployment.
Chalk another victory up for Bill Clinton, the legions of forces against personal freedom and President Bush's unwillingness to undo the wrath perpetrated on Freedom Loving American People.
And you're really looking forward to that day, aren't you.
This isn't the result of rude behaviour. Don't try to play that game. This is the result of people like yourself who just don't like the smell getting the GOVT to do your dirty work.
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