Posted on 09/17/2005 8:29:20 AM PDT by DogBarkTree
NAPLES, Italy — The Navy’s message on drug use and alcohol abuse is clear: no second chances.
With the service drawing down its forces, and no worries over meeting retention and recruiting goals, the Navy can afford to be picky about the quality of sailors it keeps around, officials said.
They’re weeding out the “fungus” that threatens to infect the service’s “garden of beautiful flowers,” said Lt. Cmdr. Tony Kapuschansky, officer-in-charge of the Norfolk, Va.-based Center for Personal Development Detachment, Drug and Alcohol Program Management Activity.
Commanding officers not only are giving the boot to those who violate anti-drug use and alcohol abuse polices, but they’re doing so in the quickest and cheapest way possible — through the administrative separation process, Kapuschansky said.
That means commanding officers have the discretion to forego lengthier and costlier courts-martial, in order to expedite a sailor’s removal.
“Where’s the justice in that?” Kapuschansky said. “The justice is: how would you like to stand watch with someone who was high?”
Sailors seem to be aware that they stand to lose so much — a guaranteed income, housing allowance, and health care benefits — if they violate policies, Kapuschansky said.
Navy officials report a steady decrease in the number of sailors testing positive for drugs, even as the number of tests has risen. In fiscal 2001, of the 799,537 samples taken, 6,251 yielded positive results. In the first seven months of fiscal 2005, nearly 1.4 million samples yielded 3,841 positive results.
Marijuana is the most popular abused drug, accounting for 55 percent of the positive hits, followed by cocaine at 21 percent, methamphetamine at 19 percent, Ecstasy at 3 percent and other drugs at 2 percent.
Youth is no excuse for violating the rules, Kapuschansky said. If an 18- or 19-year-old sailor, for example, can be trusted to man multi-million dollar weapon systems, he or she can be trusted to follow drug and alcohol policies.
Do drugs, even once, and you’re out, he said.
Alcohol is a legal substance, but sailors are expected to drink responsibly and never drive after drinking, he said at this week’s Navy Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention summit at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy. NADAP officials are taking the Navy message to the fleet in a series of summits held globally.
The policy itself isn’t new, just officials’ repetition of the message, said Tim Suich, Navy Personnel Command’s legal representative.
The target population of possible drug users in the Navy has been defined as males who are E-3 and below, have 2½ years of service or less, are 19 to 22 years of age, with an average of 14 to 24 months onboard their first duty station, and are nonwarfare qualified, according to Navy documents.
But they aren’t the only violators, and even senior sailors should beware, Suich warned. There is no such thing as “sanctuary” for those with 18 to 20 years of service behind them, and the days of commanders turning a blind eye or cutting a break to “lifers” are over, he said.
The warning sits just fine with Petty Officer 1st Class Herb Scott, the drug-and-alcohol prevention representative for his Naples unit of Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station, or NCTAMS.
“When I first came in, there seemed to be a lot of dead weight,” said the sailor with 12 years in. “Now, they’re not just letting anyone in and that’s a good thing. Now we have people who take care of their responsibilities, do their jobs … and others don’t have to pick up their slack.”
We've handled drugs for a long time: opiates, cocaine, and marijuana go back decades before the 60s, and the deadly, addictive violence-inducing drug alcohol goes back millenia. What may be our ruin is drug criminalization ... which, just like Prohibition before it, channels inflated profits into criminal hands and fosters disrespect for the law.
You are typical of the 70s Navy.
The America needs constant attention. Commissioned in 1965, it is showing its age. A month before leaving Norfolk, a senior enlisted crew member complained to his congressman: The ship was operating on only two of its six electric generators, without radar and unable to pump fuel. This would be its third six-month cruise in three years, and without the standard 18 months at home for repairs, salt water and full steaming had taken their toll.
I can not confirm these conditions as fact but I do know this much the ship upon return from that deployment in 1994 had a major explosion in a MMR pier side in Norfolk and was towed Cold Iron into Portsmouth. Was it true? Two of six generators would mean only primitive capabilities. A carrier defense wise and operations wise must have Air-Conditioning or the electronics is non functional except for the Gyro which had a back up A/C unit. With two of six generator not one of any of the ten chillers would run. Each one required anywhere from 1200-2000 amps to lite off the 150-300 amps to run at needed capacity. That would explain why radar was non functional. I worked in the AC&R shop during my time onboard.
The Bush SR cuts and Cheneys bright ideas in reductions helped set these conditions into being. No ship goes bad in a matter of months. Bill Clinton and congress did absolutely nothing to reverse the damage. What's worse when Bush JR Cheney, and Rummy, took over in 2001 they had every intention to continue to downsizing. Before 9/11 it was an almost for certain that KENNEDY was headed for decommissioning then Boston. The ship {the newest conventional}had already been in reserve status once. Keep in mind that 2 other conventional carriers were older than JFK but the Navy was trying to decom them newest to oldest. This is hard for many persons to except but the GOP sold out the military as much as the DEMs did. I can show credible proof of it. It's there for anyone to see who looks for it. My links in my home page point to some of it.
Bush SR's cuts which congress approved were too much too soon. It was also the start of the PC Navy. A carrier just 8 months out from his term if he was a good military POTUS should not have been ready for the scrap yard. Bush SR was busy cutting the fleet even during Desert Storm. The Reagan Navy had ample strength to not put a three deployment in three year policy in effect. And there was the F-14's. That has to be among the biggest mistakes Cheney ever made. A plane with near perfect airframe capabilities future production scuttled and the tooling destroyed. If money for it's replacement had went into F-14 avionics R&D & upgrades we would be far better off.
I've spent a lot of time looking at who did what and have followed troop strength etc closely since the mid 90's. No party or POTUS or congress since Reagan left office has addressed the ongoing problems in all branches. When we have National Guards being used in the active duty rotations three years into a war then people we have serious military readiness issues to address. So far not one person anywhere in office is up to the task at hand :>{
How anybody can cuss Carter for his bungling? How can they do such and yet still give what is going on now military readiness and troop strength wise their approval that all is well? Insanity is making the same mistakes over and over expecting different results.
Don't get me wrong I was on Uss Independence CV-62(V-1/V-3 Divs) from 1980-1984. I saw in my first 8 months onboard what the 1970s Carter post-VN Navy was like. We had race riots onboard and Drugs were rampant. O and incidentally, what the Navy did to the America was just wrong!
O and Bush 41 and then Sec Def Cheney put us on a glide slope as far as "right-sizing" went Klintoon and Aspen pushed us off of a cliff.
I think we're on the same page :>} I wasn't fussing at you. I'm just trying to wake people up to the actual seriousness of the problems at hand. After I got out in 80 I joined the Army NG. Army NG is about 50% Navy and Air Force prior service. IOW these are not trained field soldiers and most never saw any weapon but a .22 caliber for an hour in basic training. I got out after doing my one year hitch. A snipe doesn't belong in a Howitzer Battery >} A slodier doesn't belong in a ships HOLE. But then again my former unit which is in Iraq right now was never expected except as a last resort to be foreign deployed.
Riots were going on in Fords term. Take it from someone who did their basic & post basic training at Great Lakes 76-77. One night in January 77 fights broke out in the Apprentice Training Barracks. That was located on the Basic Training side of RTC. We were placed outside in about -30 degrees in sleeping uniform of the day. Post Nam military had many many problems and all in charge from LBJ on were to blame for it.
JFK and his partner in slime(crime) LBJ started this country downward.
You just bolstered the poster's case. Yeah, their career may be at an end but the majority will be allowed to retire with full benefits if eligible, or to voluntarily resign with no unfavorable discharge staring them in the face. Care to find out how many enlisted are offered the same?
I have $50 that says "beautiful flowers" Kapuschansky is a beneficiary of Don't Ask Don't Tell.
Well, aren't you special! Whatever it was that you did when you were young, dumb and full of ***, certainly qualifies you to handle classifed material. Yeah Right, Holier than Thou!
Even a tarnished dime is still worth ten shiny pennies.
Welcome aboard. Sorry to say, this will likely be a short stay for you.
I am not holier than thou; I just accept the consequences for my actions and ask others to do the same.
Personal responsibility, it's what separates the children from adults.
Our TOP was the biggest drunk in the company. Made about 30% of the morning assemblies.
Drank with him once at the NCO club and he was great, but the next day, he must have been hungover. Always a mean SOB during the day. Life of the party in the evenings.
He did 3 tours on Nam so no one said a word, not even the CO. Since we worked near the E/W German border, we used to say that if the Russkies came, we'd stick with him, drunk or sober.
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