How Does Alcoholism Affect Our Military?

When I was in the Navy, alcohol impacted me as part of Naval tradition as a Sailor. Sailors are known to be hard drinkers and party-goers, and mostly known for a bad reputation. We had a motto in our Division (V-2 Launch & Recovery): "Work hard, party hard." It was part of being on a carrier and part of being in "One of the worst Divisions in the Air Department."

People labeled us as "Grease Monkeys" because we worked ungodly hours and could never stay clean since maintenance always involved some type of heavy grease. We did what we did best on liberty - drink.

I never got arrested or anything but yes, alcoholism affects our military. It really just boils down to how your Chain of Command handles morale. I don't think that there is anything wrong with alcohol as long as you drink responsibly.

When the morale is good and high, tension and stress are minimized which equals less instances regarding alcohol-related events. When morale is low, alcohol can be a problem when not considering it responsibly.

See, this is why I don't drink! These statistics are scary. I don't understand the whole, 'gee, I had a stressed out day, I need a drink' mindset. I think we need more programs for service members, esp. the young ones. Programs that don't get axed because the risk assessment came back to high. Why not have a boxing club? We could start 3 gun competitions. Push more intramural sports programs. How about starting something that can be funded by the DoD and allow service members a healthy alternative to drinking and doing otherwise unhealthy things. We reduce the service members 'need' to drink, we can lower a lot of problems we are currently experiencing.

34,400 arrests per year, with half of those for driving under the influence. OMG, I didn't realize the problem was this pervasive. This is another great infographic produced by the RallyPoint Team!

It would be really great if I could read these things without having to hunt down a magnifying glass.

I am a big proponent of personal responsibility. I feel that if you treat Soldiers like adults, they will generally act like adults. However, if a Soldier proves to be less than adult about adult beverages then as leaders we should swiftly and strongly help him assess his priorities. We should also investigate into what was the cause; poor judgement, weakness to peer pressure, bad home life, low self estem, suicidal tendancies etc. We should not punish the whole for the sins of the few.

We used to have Officers Clubs, NCO Clubs and Enlisted Clubs; there were slowly erroded away to all ranks clubs then none at all (partly due to alcohal related incedences, and partly due to the lack of being held properly accountable, and partly due to progressive/liberal thinking) . As adults we should be able to drink and have a place to go with like minded individuals.

In previous wars Soldiers were allowed to drink; some units even operated their own bar. If a Soldier had a perticular rough mission he could releve some stress over a cold one. Now the Soldier is expected to keep his concerns bottled up inside. Ever wonder why depresion, PTSD, and suicide rates are higher now than before? I do not believe that self medicating with booz is the answer; however I do not believe the absolute removal of booze is the answer either.

Anytime that something legal is made illegal, you have not removed the item, you have only made criminals. [please feel free to use this logic to any item that leadership/government is trying to take away from its people]

From my own very personal experience, alcohol use and abuse is deadly. My best friend for many years was a British Royal Army Soldier and served in Northern Ireland. He was a constant drinker. After years of drinking he was diagnosed with cirrhosis. Soon after he was injured and unable to work. He mixed a deadly combination of alcoholic beverages and prescription pain killers, passed out on the way to the head, and died. Tragic.

Do I drink? Yes, occasionally. Do I drink to excess? No, never. A clear indicator about the acceptance of alcohol abuse in the military is when you go to the PX/BX or class 6 and notice they sell "Military Special" whisky, vodka, gin, etc. Why do we need our own?

Education is one step. The second, which we are trying to accomplish, is reducing the stigma of talking about what is going on inside your brain housing group. While not publicized, when I joined, platoon Sergeants (called platoon Daddy's back then) had significant life experience to go along with the Chevrons and provided counsel. My first USMC platoon Sergeant was a Viet Nam Veteran. Sometimes that counsel was at the spit shined toe of a boot and sometimes it was talking. Perhaps we need to slow promotions and ensure our Staff and Senior NCOs and Chiefs have the life experience to go along with the military experience before promotion. That is just one thought, but in a world of draw downs, harder missions with fewer resources, and more deployment time, that may just not be a real answer.

Well, according to my PHA having more than 3 drinks in a sitting means I'm an alcoholic... not to say I'd ever do such a thing.

That said, I know many people who drink their fair share. Hell, TDY's are like one big ol' drinking contest at times. Theres no harm in drinking here and there.

I think where it becomes an issue is when it effects your work, your family, your social life, and when you feel you NEED to drink, not WANT to drink. Sadly, that interpretation I'm finding is "wrong". I've had to recommend some guys to ADAPT because the drinking was causing issues, and they're better for it. But when the military classifies it in such a shallow way that anyone could break it just by having a rough day... makes you think.

Instead of pointing fingers, perhaps we should be analyzing why these statistics are coming to pass.
These statistics look as if they are looking at veterans returning from war-time, not just the average soldier, and thus maybe these veterans are having a hard time transitioning, or are having a harder time coping with stress. Maybe we aren't giving our military members the tools they need to succeed after being in a war zone, so they turn to the only other thing they know that de-stresses them: alcohol.
As pointed out by a few other commentors, alcohol is a part of the military lifestyle; it probably shouldn't be.

Decrease the stresses on the military that lead them to alcohol in the first place.  Although I would hazard a guess that alcoholism in the military is probably on par with the rate found at a large college campus...a large group of young people, away from home for the first time, with some money to burn.

I entered the US Army in June of 1984, back then it was a drink as much as you possibly can thing. My first permanent duty station was at Fort Polk, LA. There wasn't much to do in off duty time but drink. It was common to see SFCs, MSGs and the occasional 1SG on Community Service on the side of the highways. It wasn't until the early-mid 1990s that when the drawdown started there became a zero defect Army and many fell victim to this. I think too often as soldiers/sailors/airmen and marines are subjected to deployment after deployment they turn to alcohol instead of seeking help. How do I know this? I am one who battled this. I went for years without drinking any alcohol. I now have the discipline to not rely on alcohol as a means of trying to help me forget, but I have a social drink every now and then. Is it hard? yes it is. I almost let alcohol ruin my life.