Posted on 06/17/2010 5:46:12 AM PDT by lack-of-trust
It's a rumor that dates back decades: To keep the sexual appetites of recruits in check so they can focus on basic training, the military services sneak saltpeter into the food served to new soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.
Jeff Schogol, the "Rumor Doctor" at Stars and Stripes, actually went to the trouble of getting the services to respond to this legend. You probably won't be surprised to learn that he got a series of strenuous denials.
"The rigors of basic training alone are sufficient to keep the urges at abeyance," an Army spokesman reported. "Keep in mind that it's not just recruits that dine in our recruit messing facilities but all authorized patrons," the Marines said. "Though the rumor persists in some imaginations, for the Air Force it has never been true," a service spokesman said. The Navy likewise quashed the legend. And the Defense Logistics Agency said there's "no way" sexual suppressants are added to any meals served to the troops.
Are new recruits secretly given saltpeter? (Stars and Stripes)
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Officially “no”.. I don’t see how this can help, the side-effect risk would be too high to mess with drugging them.
The military never disseminates disinformation either.
Well this issue used to be easy. Keep all the men separated from the women. No combined training at all. It’s just human nature. Young men that are around young women are going to try and bang the young women.
Now that the gays will be given a free pass soon, this will get worse...
No. But getting up at 0500 and doing physical exercise all day long will make you dream of a sweet bed at 2000 (8 PM) over a your sweet girlfriend...
FYI - This is infantry (all male) basic.
Um, if you get turned on by 50 other guys and four of them screaming at you, you needed leathers and whip, not the military.
LOL, LOL!
When the first thing you hear at 0400 (or earlier) is the sound of a screaming drill sergeant, that is enough to keep the mahogany away all day.
This is my weapon, this is my gun....
They may deny it, but I don’t recall geting a single chubby during basic, but the night of graduation and every night until I reported to my first duty station, I was tapping the bejeezus out of the GF. mornings, too, and a few late mornings and most afternoons, as well.
“I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as i ever was. “
Did they also sneak something in the food that prevented people from relaxing enough to defecate for a week?
Basic training is attempting to break you down like a wild animal, nothing you have is your own, you are hunted, berated, busy, keeping your head down. You get so wound up you cannot even defecate, and yet we look for some grand conspiracy and secret drug administration to explain a lack of arousal?
Let us try to keep FreeRepublic from becoming a repository of every kook conspiracy theory out there, eh?
New recruits are probably surprised to find that they have a lack of libido. All the exercise makes them feel more manly, more pumped, and people associate that feeling with libido.
Your gun is a broken link. *snicker*.
Yeah, why go with a perfectly reasonable explanation when a great big implausible conspiracy will do just as well?
Oh yeah, and any of you guys calls me ‘Francis’ and I kill you!
:)
Sometimes it worked!
When I went through basic training in the Coast Guard (late 80’s), women trained with the men.
We did everything together except sleep and use the showers and head.
The week I came in there were 65 young men and little ol’ me.
I can honestly state that being in basic did not squash many of their libidos.
And before anyone makes any assumptions....nothing happened. But boy did they try like hell. Crazy 8 weeks.
Lighten up, Francis.
;-)
I don’t think this is true. After three weeks in Basic Training my female Drill Sergeant started looking real good.
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