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HK

wrote:
On Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:45:59 -0400, HK wrote:

The draft should be reinstated, with no exemptions but for the
physically or seriously mentally challenged. That alone would put a
chill on political warmongering, because the parents of the future
draftees would want a tad more proof than the Bush Admin provided before
they sent their kids off to die for the Republican Party.

I agree we should have the draft but I am not deluded that it would
keep old men from sending young men off to war.

As for the original post, I suspect this has more to do with the fact
that they actually do have treatment for alcoholism these days. The
military was a collection of functioning alcoholics (using the current
definition) in the 60s when I was there. There wasn't much else to do
off duty but drink in Norfolk.
You were either on duty, on Gramby street or sleeping it off in your
rack. That assumed you weren't drinking government subsidized beer in
the EM club.

My wife had a "group" for alcoholics in the Jax area one night a week.
She was a volunteer, actually, asked to take on the task by a county
judge to get the program rolling. The folks in the group were all men,
all having been brought into court several times for spouse abuse, all
in conjunction with alcohol. Almost all the people in her group were
naval personnel living off base. The group was their last chance before
a jail sentence. They had to attend six months of therapy for their
aggressive behavior (booze treatment was done elsewhere), and if they
behaved inappropriately while in group, my wife would call the judge and
they'd be incarcerated.

There were several such groups taking place each night at the facility,
and of course they weren't all naval personnel, though for some reason
most of the guys in my wife's group were. The judge assigned a deputy
sheriff to the facility in the evenings so that if someone got out of
line with the therapists or fellow group folk, there would be a big cop
around to take care of them.

Alcoholism is a monster of a problem in our society, and certainly isn't
limited to military personnel, but the military culture seems to condone
it, or at least did, in the not so distant past.

I'm surprised you guys couldn't find much to do in Norfolk in your off
hours besides drink, what with all the great beaches and babes so close by.