Why can’t an enlisted soldier date an officer?

with all do respect to officers, who want to date/be in a relationship with someone that have to be addicted to their work in order to make it to the next rank?

SFC Stonebraker, they can and do, they should not if in the same chain of command. We dealt with the issue more severely in the 70s at the WAC Hq. I remember a male 1sg married a female commander in the same unit. One went to Alaska....

I think one of the biggest problems is that the military expects of us to be "robots" and that we should forget that in the end we are and will always be - Human.

This (being human) does not excuse our behavior (for which we make ourselves responsible for and should accept when held accountable), and from us it should be expected to act as adults and professionals who leave personal issues at home - Unless of course we're seeking counseling.

With that said, I do think that in order for future health of the military an investment should be made into educating us further about professionalism and relationships. As far as what is expected, what is and what is not acceptable in the workplace. Maybe not mandatory in general but general but mandatory if you have interest/desire to date a fellow service member. And not something that you could reprimanded over if someone found out you were already dating, instead guidance should be given telling the two individuals they had to take the "training" if they wanted to be together.

The biggest issue the military runs into with this (in my opinion) is that we all know that we have a life after the military, relationships being something that will extend beyond life in the military. Especially with how unstable the job-security seems to be nowadays with the force drawbacks.

- By enforcing the restrictions it shows the military does not care about nor value what we as individuals value, that being individual relationships (or our outreach for them).

- By educating members it develops life-skills in general and also shows that the military cares about it's service members enough to invest into their future.

I can see why someone who feels they do not need education on relationships/proper behavior could see this as intrusive but if you can say you are already "trained" it would also get other's (leadership) to ease off you unless they see you were stepping out of bounds in which you could be corrected. Who knows, you may also get something out of it even if it's just something small.

In the long run, keeping this "it's unacceptable" attitude will only be detrimental to the military itself.

The way I learned, I am not to fraternize with any female in uniform, officer or enlisted. I later understood that any breakups with said females can get quite ugly after that. So I did not.

They CAN, but it is severely frowned upon. My wife and I married when we were both active duty Air Force: me- TSgt; her- Capt. We were "punished". I won't go into detail, but I retired a TSgt but, my wife retired a Maj. She was a nurse and I was a unit training manager. We never had to work together and didn't for 6 years and then I retired. My wife contaminated the officer gene pool, something had to be done.

I understand the need to have standards. I also understand that, while a UTM working the education center, I counseled more enlisted Airmen on their masters degrees than officers. I also understand that when God brings two people together, He outranks.

Antiquated and yet necessary, after all, open season for dating would destroy good order and discipline.

http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r600_20.pdf

AR 600-20, Paragraph 4-14

Relationships still happen. Seen it a number of times over the years. They are kept on the down-low or the command just overlooks it if they find out. Most couples kept their relationship secret & then took leave at the same time. They then came back from leave married to each other. The command just made sure to keep the enlisted out of the officer's change of command. One couple that was outed beforehand was being processed out, got married, & then still got kicked out. Back in the day, many gays & lesbians also married in order to protect themselves. Once people were married, they were fairly safe from military rules.

Emotional attachment but not married and one gets orders. The ability to maintain a long distance relationship and trust the other person. Military focus might be diminished.

I was an officer a long time ago when female soldiers were called wACSit was a small problem mostly due to numbers opportunity. Now there are lots of both sexes everywhere. Dating/marrying in the civilian world occurs often. However in the military the end job is to cause death to the enemy. Relationships could cause conflicts in a war zone and even friction in relationships of types or found in the civilian world. It could cause real problems out near the point of the spear. Keeping couples outside common chain of command could cause their own hardships. Probably should be allowed but what’s to be done if relation ships starts effecting their job performance

Back in 1986 at Fort Sill there was a Young Major dating an E-3 Dental Tech. To be fair she was a very attractive young women, but what was the perception. Neither one worked for the other, but the perception was her O-4 was getting her out of details and crappy assignments. Real or not there was that perception. Some Senior Person guided the O-4 into making a break as the story goes.