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See, I lived overseas as a dependent, and visited as a serviceman, so I understand this view, because I saw it played out over, and over, and over, and over again my whole life. My father was the XO in a lot of those places, which means he was the hammer, the one who meted out discipline, so I watched it in progress as a kid when he dealt with offenders, got the scoop from him growing up on what to expect if I got in trouble off-base, got the same talk with more emphasis from him when I enlisted, and heard the same thing ad-nauseum from shipmates, supervisors, senior enlisted, and officers over and over again all the way up the the Captain of the ship.

In the course of my life, the message was unvarying, exactly the same, and seemed very commonsense to me (because I had seen it repeatedly played out) and that message was:

"You can have a good time. You can even get drunk, but you must remember two things: First, you represent the United States of America, and must always remember that. Secondly, if you get into trouble, it makes no difference if you are lying, telling the truth, did do something, or didn't do something. You are on your own. We (your Father/Commanding Officer/Military/Lawyer/Country) will do what we can to help, but in any foreign country, your fate will be at the mercy of those in that country with power who feel you have done something wrong. And there is no getting around that. You will be on your own."