Posted on 05/29/2008 1:58:25 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
FORT BLISS This military base in the far West Texas desert stood as the last Army post in America where if you were old enough to fight and die for your country, you were old enough to drink a beer.
But the party is over at Fort Bliss.
Citing too many drunken-driving crashes and arrests and too many fights, the new commanding general has raised the drinking age on base from 18 to 21, bringing 17,000-soldier Fort Bliss into line with what has been the law in the rest of Texas since 1986.
And not only that, but all Fort Bliss soldiers are barred from slipping across the Mexican border to Ciudad Juarez, the city of famously loose morals where young Americans have been getting drunk and getting into trouble for generations. From now on, no passes to Juarez will be issued.
The new policy took effect May 22.
Pfc. Walter Iverson, a babyfaced 19-year-old, said he will miss grabbing a beer after work: "It's like my parents say, I'm old enough to join the Army, but I'm not old enough to drink."
"I don't know why they changed it. I never had a problem with drinking," he said. A few guys "ruined it for everyone."
Other Army bases around the country raised their drinking age to 21 over the past 20 years or so. Many states went to 21 under federal pressure beginning in the mid-1980s, and 21 is now the law in all 50 states.
For the past 28 years, however, Fort Bliss let young soldiers drink. For most of that period, it was peacetime, and things were calm on base. Also, commanders figured that letting soldier drinks at the base club would discourage them from going to Juarez.
But now units are routinely shipping back and forth to Iraq and Afghanistan, and base officials say young men and women have been using alcohol to blow off steam too much steam.
Maj. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, who took over in January, cracked down after a review of base crime statistics showed that in late 2007 and early 2008, sexual assaults, domestic violence and traffic accidents by soldiers 18, 19 or 20 involved alcohol more often than not.
Before the war, "we didn't have a large number of incidents involving younger soldiers," said Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt. "We weren't in a wartime situation, which made for a difference in behavior upon returning."
One combat veteran said that is all the more reason the soldiers deserve a drink.
"They are under a lot of pressure when they come back from wars," said 71-year-old Navy veteran Ramon Segura, commander of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post just outside the 17,000-soldier Fort Bliss. "I just don't think that at the post that it should be 21."
The way Segura sees it, post bars could easily serve underage soldiers low-alcohol beer and make sure that they stay at Fort Bliss after drinking.
Pvt. Katie Perkovich, who turned 21 in January, said that when she was underage, she liked the safety of being able to have a few beers, bowl at the base bowling alley and walk home.
Pvt. Aaron Clark, also 21, said the new policy is good news. "I think it's for the best," he said. "Most of the accidents were with drinkers under 21."
Dunno if he factored in if the guys had returned from rotation. Stuff usually happens when you get back.
There is no greater urge than the urge of some men and women to tell others what to do.
You bring up an interesting point. I wonder how many of these troops are regular soldiers or reserve and national guardsmen there for deployment. THen again it is a training base and will actually begin having basic training back their again as well soon, if not now.
I was 18 when NJ changed it to 19. I was 19 when NJ changed it to 21. I was always grandfathered. It is a difficult decision. My friend was one month away from going onto a nuclear sub, got drunk and hit an oak tree in his yard. 65 mph. Shattered both his legs. The Navy said goodbye. Young males with a license are pretty scary. But for the grace of GOD go I.
Yeah, that'll bring the stats down. Now he and his Provost Marshall can spend more time and effort getting 18-20 year old soldiers released from the Juarez jail instead.
And of course people below 21 don't drink, so that would not have happened had the drinking age been higher.
In 1983, this was Fort Bragg’s policy - if you were old enough to wear the uniform and get shot at, you were old enough to drink.
It’s as if they want an army of monks and nuns - you’re throwing 17-22 year-old men and women into close quarters, hormones running high, party-animal pressure from the MSM all their lives, and they get imposed boarding-school behavior with no outlet.
Let the troops have a drink, for crissake.
When are they going to change their name?
They should probably change the name of the fort as well, imo.
I often play designated driver for my cousins and their friends, even to the point of driving to Louisville (45 miles), Lexington(75 miles), or Cincinnati(125 miles) to pick them up.
I'll most likely end up doing it again this weekend. Most of the bartenders and bouncers at the clubs know me and assist in getting everyone out the door and into my Highlander, and the gate guards at Fort Knox know me on a first-name basis.
Raising the drinking age...
If that worked, then thousands of teens would be alive today.
At 20, or 19, or 18 or 16, etc., if they want it, they can find a way to get it.
This is just another one of those ‘feelgood-isms’. It was designed to head off the rumbling from disgruntled groups who complain that the drinking age is too low. It is another example of a group wanting to tell others how to live their lives.
*******...if you were old enough to fight and die for your country, you were old enough to drink a beer. *******
If you are old enough to drink and fight your buddies, you are old enough to die for your country.
Right on.
I remember coming home from college going, to a party and searching for beer while everyone else (they were all 2-3 years younger) went heavy into the pot. Underage for booze but no age for pot
Just what we need to do since Juarez turns into a small-arms combat zone — send young Americans there.
One summer my cousins and I kept “going to the JCC to play basketball” when staying with my Uncle/Aunt — code for going over the pay bridge and getting smashed.
Wouldn’t risk it now.
I was 17 and drinking at Ft Devens in 1979. I think Mass. was 20 or 21 but 18 on post. I never got carded. I don’t think they were aware that they had a few 17yo there.
And because Mass. was 21 we would drive to Rhode Island to drink.
3.2 beer?
...
Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this an' Tommy that, an' Tommy, 'ow's yer soul
But it's 'Thin red line of 'eroes' when the drums begin to roll
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll
it's 'Thin red line of 'eroes' when the drums begin to rollWe aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints
while it's Tommy this an' Tommy that, an' Tommy 'Tommy fall be'ind'
But it's 'Please to walk in front, sir' when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind
O it's 'Please to walk in front, sir' when there's trouble in the wind - Rudyard Kipling "Tommy"
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