Posted on 01/11/2006 3:49:15 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Red lights in certain, seedy districts of European cities have come to mean anything but stop.
But since the Department of Defense has specifically made it a crime for U.S. troops to patronize prostitutes worldwide, those red lights could mean trouble for U.S. servicemembers.
Even though the formal order came in an Oct. 14 presidential executive order, the news was still reaching some troops stationed in Europe. In fact, two of the three services reached said there was no formal program to tell servicemembers of the change.
“It’s nothing that’s new,” said U.S. Army Europe spokesman Bob Purtiman.
Soliciting a prostitute has always been part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s sexual misconduct and always has been against good order and discipline, Purtiman said. With the presidential executive order, it’s just now found in another part of the UMCJ, thus, there is no need to brief soldiers in Europe, he said.
Farther south in Naples, Italy, sailors stationed there said they were not aware of the order.
“I didn’t know about it, but I’m not surprised to see it,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jimmy Fields with Naval Forces Europe. Soliciting prostitutes, Fields said, goes against good leadership.
Neither Naval Forces Europe nor Commander, 6th Fleet have formal programs to make sailors aware of the new order, but it has been covered in Navywide training programs, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Steven Galvan.
“In addition, the Navy has created an online course to enhance basic awareness of the prohibitions against trafficking in persons,” he said.
Galvan said the command is unaware of any cases of sailors in Europe being charged with soliciting a prostitute since the October order. Commands, he said, would normally handle these cases in a nonjudicial setting, and no requirement exists to report these individual cases up the chain of command.
Asked on Monday about how the Air Force was letting airmen know of the new order, officials at U.S. Air Forces in Europe failed to respond by deadline.
Airman 1st Class Joshua Van Ness, who is stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, said he was unaware of the legal change but said it will not affect him because he does not partake in such services.
“I didn’t know if it was legal or not legal in the first place,” said Van Ness. “I just know that [prostitutes are] around here.”
On some evenings, cars or motor homes with red lights illuminating the inside can be seen parked on roads outside U.S. installations in the Kaiserslautern military community. In Germany, prostitution is legal as long as prostitutes have a license, said Christiane Lautenschläger, a spokeswoman with the Kaiserslautern Polizei.
But Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Austin, 39, a soldier with the 100th Area Support Group in Grafenwöhr, Germany, said troops should stay away from such places.
“If you are married, you shouldn’t be visiting no prostitutes,” he said. “If you are not married you shouldn’t be either. It is called safe sex.”
Stars and Stripes reporters Seth Robson and Geoff Ziezulewicz contributed to this report.
That's why I'm asking. As Commander-in-Chief, he simply has to pick up the phone to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. An Executive Order is overkill.
A lot of less than honourable discharges are going to be handed out thats for sure.
It puts it in black and white so there is no misunderstanding.
"Why buy the cow..."
Article 134, UCMJ.
Anyone ever hear of the Jackson Whites? At least into the 1970's (maybe still, though hard to believe they can still withstand the onslaught of suburban development) there were a "tribe" of isolated people who lived on a mountain in northern New Jersey. By the 1930's their once-remote mountain was no longer remote. It was not far from where WCW lived. They were distinctive for their 18th Century accents (what we call "hillbilly"), their tawny skin, Caucasian features and recessive genes that gave many of them six fingers, mental retardation and other genetic defects after a few centuries of being their own first cousins no times removed.
They owned the mountain which they had inhabited for 200 years and almost never let an outsider onto their land. Talk about a Wall! They were descended from runaway slaves, Indians and white women "camp followers"of George Washington's forces (who were trampling around Northern Jersey in 1777 or thereabouts). The name Jackson's Whites referred to the "white slavery" which the women escaped by their retreat with the other outcasts to thei mountain. So for two centuries, these folks kept themselves almost completely isolated on their mountain and armed themselves to enforce it. Strangers were simply not allowed. Although an occasional journalist or anthropologist would write about them.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/pure-products-comment.html
Also available in "Weird NJ": the book and issue#8
Vietnam had both in country R&R and govt regulated brothels world wide.
The VA had Mexican R&R center for paras.
When I had a minor wound that got infected in RVN I got Lt. duty on our firebase for a week...one of my Lt. duty jobs was making sure the local Prostitues got their PenVK shots and got credit for it on their licenses.
Hey.. it was a dirty job but someone had to do it...chasing them down and tackleing them was the hard part.(but I did play high school football)
'Needles' to say, in some cases the shots were forced on them with uncle sugars blessing.
I guess this means they no longer sell Hustler Penthouse or Playboy in the PXs anymore?
;)
I have lived my life by that credo.
HOWEVER - I'm one hell of a good Tipper!
Yeah, it's called dating and/or the wedding + honeymoon! HAHAHAHAHAHAH
:)
The President will have better luck in converting Ted Kennedy to school prayer and right to life than keeping troops aways from the ladies.
Hey, you, Tide, I command you to recede.
With all the women "soldiers" now, why would you need to pay for it?
That order is just political posturing. It looks good to say that we are doing something about the international sex slavery and all of that. Everybody in the military knows that the local commanders will ignore the order.
After WWII, not-fratenization orders were given for the troops of occupation in Japan & Germany. That didn't stop a LOT of guys from bringing home war brides, or connecting with local prostitutes.
At least once!
Don't be fooled.. the most expensive sex you ever have is the sex you don't have to pay for..
Red lights in certain, seedy districts of European cities have come to mean anything but stop.
Not all the red lights are in seedy districts. For example, one was right across the street from an installation in Heidelberg, Germany, that contained the PX, commissary and inprocessing center.
“If you are not married you shouldn’t be either. It is called safe sex.”
The average girl a soldier picks up in a night club won't necessarily require him to wear a condom. Practically all legal prostitutes do, and they're regularly tested for disease anyway.
That guy still there in 1966? I was there in 1957.
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