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Burning Question: Does the military try to suppress the sex drive of recruits?
Government Executive .com ^ | 06-15-2010 | jeff Schogol

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)

Burning Question is a recurring feature that looks at key issues and compelling stories being explored at other publications and social media sites.


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: saltpeter
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it's official now...
1 posted on 06/17/2010 5:46:12 AM PDT by lack-of-trust
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To: lack-of-trust

Officially “no”.. I don’t see how this can help, the side-effect risk would be too high to mess with drugging them.


2 posted on 06/17/2010 5:48:11 AM PDT by mnehring
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To: lack-of-trust

The military never disseminates disinformation either.


3 posted on 06/17/2010 5:54:29 AM PDT by 21st Century Crusader
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To: lack-of-trust

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...


4 posted on 06/17/2010 5:55:05 AM PDT by strider44
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To: lack-of-trust

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.


5 posted on 06/17/2010 5:55:21 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: lack-of-trust

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.


6 posted on 06/17/2010 5:55:40 AM PDT by CodeToad
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To: cindy-true-supporter

LOL, LOL!


7 posted on 06/17/2010 5:56:07 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Racism is the first refuge of liberals. --J.T. Young)
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To: lack-of-trust

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.


8 posted on 06/17/2010 5:56:35 AM PDT by fr_freak
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To: lack-of-trust

This is my weapon, this is my gun....

9 posted on 06/17/2010 5:58:28 AM PDT by earlJam
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To: lack-of-trust

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. “


10 posted on 06/17/2010 5:58:48 AM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (I can spell just fine, thanks, it's my typing that sucks.)
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To: lack-of-trust
The Drill Instructors ate the same food we did from the same chow line.

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?

11 posted on 06/17/2010 5:59:23 AM PDT by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: lack-of-trust

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.


12 posted on 06/17/2010 6:02:33 AM PDT by dangus
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To: earlJam

Your gun is a broken link. *snicker*.


13 posted on 06/17/2010 6:03:50 AM PDT by dangus
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To: allmendream
Do I have to say it?

14 posted on 06/17/2010 6:05:48 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Travis T. OJustice
"They may deny it, but I don’t recall geting a single chubby during basic"

Wow, that's a little different from what I remember. I remember getting up at o dark thirty every morning at Parris Island with 80 other recruits, getting on line in our t-shirts and boxer shorts with no button on the flys. There were 80 recruits standing at attention with 80 flags at attention also. Many of us needed a head call, but not all....
15 posted on 06/17/2010 6:13:51 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: oh8eleven

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!

:)


16 posted on 06/17/2010 6:17:06 AM PDT by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: lack-of-trust
Back in the 60s, they ran my ass off day and night and kept me segregated from the WACs.

Sometimes it worked!

17 posted on 06/17/2010 6:22:55 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (RAT Hunting Season started the evening of March 21st, 2010!)
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To: CodeToad

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.


18 posted on 06/17/2010 6:28:08 AM PDT by Aurorales (I will not be ridiculed into silence)
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To: allmendream
Oh yeah, and any of you guys calls me ‘Francis’ and I kill you!

Lighten up, Francis.

;-)

19 posted on 06/17/2010 6:30:31 AM PDT by IYAS9YAS (Liberal Logic: Mandatory health insurance is constitutional - enforcing immigration law is not.)
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To: lack-of-trust

I don’t think this is true. After three weeks in Basic Training my female Drill Sergeant started looking real good.


20 posted on 06/17/2010 6:39:53 AM PDT by cll (I am the warrant and the sanction)
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