Should Alcohol be served on deployments regardless of where the deployment is?

I seem to run contrary to quite a few folks in that I believe people will rise to expectations if you demonstrate a little trust and faith in their decency.

I realize that it's not directly comparable, but way back when I was enlisted, I indulged in fewer vices than most soldiers so I generally had cash readily at hand, and I invested it in my fellow soldiers by acting as my company's indigenous loan shark -- with a couple of twists. Number one, I let the soldiers assess their own exorbitant interest rates, based on how risky they felt loaning money to them really was. Second, I never chased anybody down to demand repayment -- and I never had any need to. The one time that a soldier got up to being a few hundred dollars down, the first sergeant sent word that the orderly room would not sign off on the soldier in question's clearance papers until I had been repaid in full. That was the closest I came to having to pester anybody to pay what they owed -- most seemed to appreciate being trusted and were careful to not be That Guy who messed up a good arrangement. After 5 years of never getting burned during some of the Army's darkest days in terms of all the normal measures for quality of the troops, that experience has definitely skewed my view in favor of trusting troops enough to first give them a chance to rise to expectations.

They sell condoms in the middle of the combat zone at the px. People do what they do. If an adult wishes to indulge in an adult beverage after work, indulge. The jailhouse is full of people who do bad things in combat zones alcohol had nothing to do with it. I am not advocating " apocalypse now" or anything, i just think personal responsibility is your responsibility,not mine. If you do stupid, you pay. Simple.

Always thought it was funny that U.S. Navy ships are dry except for the two beers you get every 45 days at sea; especially having seen the officers flock to foreign ships for social events where wine and other drinks were available, it's apparently no big deal except to us.

(Edited). Given the opportunity, men and women have demonstrated consistent failure to disappoint in OUR commission of foolish acts under the influence of alcohol. There are better times/places than (combat) deployments to indulge and to discover that someone in the unit is addicted to or abuses alcohol. Save it for the Holiday party and hope they get stopped by base police before they leave the gate.

Even away from the combat zone it seems that the majority of our safety mishaps, bad behavior, sexual assault, etc are alcohol related. I don't think we need anymore problems downrange than we already have... particularly when you have soldiers carrying around weapons and ammo.

Keep the drinking on base...we all need a beer or some intoning stronger every now & then...

I feel we should keep things as they are. It is sad that our allies can't show the professional side even in a deployment situation. Where there nights I had wished I could have kicked back and drank a cold one... yes but would I have been ready for any mission that could have poped off at any moment?