Original article source as source is blocked on FR.
Survey: Military binge drinking drops, but this service stood out in a bad way
So drinking a whole bottle of Pepe Lopez at the New Sanno in Tokyo right before boarding the bus back to Camp Fuji is out?
My bad.
I expected that service to be the Marines, and whaddya know ...
Pretty low bar.....................
Back in my younger days, that would have just been a warm-up for the serious drinking yet to come.
Let our soldiers booze up! They keep me safe. Give em hookers too if they need it. Anything for our guys..
Five drinks is binge drinking? Sissies. half my company had shown up for PT still drunk.
Binge drinking is up. So are instances of PTSD and service related suicides.
Experts may be shocked or baffled by these facts, but not me.
Our society died. Our culture, our values, the factors that made America (and American men) great?
All gone.
Even the armed forces themselves are to blame for this sorry facts. The acceptance of queers in the military was an obvious sign of bad things yet to come.
God help us if we ever get into a full scale war again. What with soyboys, women, queers, dumbed down standards, etc. now being the norm - we would be in a world of (Obama).
NOTE. This rant is not directed at or intended to insult anyone who has or who is serving. God Bless You.
I’m just commenting on what the 8 years of the Obama Regime has done to the overall state of our military today.
Binge drinking is up? Yeah. No sh!t. I’d drink too.
/rant off
The Navy is nothing, nothing, nothing....boat pulls into port and its wall to wall drunken sailors until the boat leaves.
One of my best friends was in the Corps for 12 years. He said the job of the Marine Corps was “to keep the Squids sober enough not to run the boat into something on the way to taking them (the Marines) to somebody who needs killin’”
Neither I, nor any of the other Squids I know could refute it.
It’s all fun and games, I guess, until someone gets burned. I know a Navy guy who was burned “accidentally” by someone operating machinery while intoxicated. It’s so cool to bring your booze in to work with you. Those Navy uniforms (the camo ones) melt to your skin when they’re on fire. Eventually, the jerk in charge got his. Total lack of discipline on that boat.
As for Marines, as long as they drink away from work and when not driving, who cares.
So what is the rate amoung civvies of the same age bracket?
I wonder how different these numbers are from male civilians of the same age?
Binge drinking is 5 drinks or more at one sitting? These are young warriors blowing off steam when they are allowed to let down their otherwise disciplined lives for a brief stint.
Let them be.
My favorite quote from the source you cite:
“The survey used a random sampling method and was sent to 201,990 service members in the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard. Of those, 16,699 usable responses were received,”
“Usable responses.” That’s a scream. I can only imagine what the responses were.
I wonder how these stats compare to binge-drinking stats on a comparable demographic (age and sex) group in college, in the workforce, etc. When I go “uptown,” I observe young civilians doing quite a bit of drinking.
When I was stationed at Lajes field in the Azores, the whole island was buzzing the next morning about a crew of Marines that took over the Bowling alley bar. The SP’s just stood outside to wait for it to get over. The marines had covered the floor with beer and were taking running leaps to slide the length of the Quonset hut. I say men in the real war deserve to let off the pressure sometimes. I’ve understood it was like that for some Air Force flight crew members. So, I think the survey is worthless.
OORAH!
We Marines do everything BETTER! Even our liver killing is better than the other services!
Define “one sitting.”
Five drinks over a one or two hour lunch is a lot (although a little short of a “binge” in my book).
Five drinks over the course of a barbecue that starts around lunchtime and ends after the sunset sounds like light-to-moderate consumption.
Back in my day, five was a good start to the weekend...
When it was finally legal (my 21st birthday) between bars and party stores I do believe I spent five straight days somewhere between buzzed and incoherent and barely mobile. No more having to ask friends “you fly I’ll buy”!
Semper Fi.
L
I recall a line from a military Science Fiction story. A recently graduated cadet is taken to the Officers Club by his new CO. Cadet is given shot after shot of whiskey, with “down the hatch” toasts to the service, the ship, the unit, etc. CO tells cadet, “First we will teach you how to drink. Later you will learn why we drink.”
One of the effects of shutting down the club system DoD wide.
At least the officer and NCO clubs let you blow off steam in a social setting with your leaders and peers in a more structured way.