The military’s smoking ban
You’ve probably all read by now about the Institute of Medicine’s report to the Pentagon that recommends they start phasing out tobacco use in the military. I figured I’d let the smoke clear before I weigh in on it. I’ve been a smoker most of my life – the rate at which I smoke has varied over the years from about a pack a day when I was a platoon sergeant to about six every day now. When I’m at bars, that increases somewhat. When I’m standing in a group of hippies, it increases, too.
I actually quit for two years when I taught ROTC in Vermont, and then I started again during the Gulf War. I remember when the Army used to give us three cigarettes in a C-ration, and I remember the first time we got C-rations without cigarettes – talk about a miserable field problem.
During the Gulf War, we were deep inside Iraq for several weeks screening for the Shi’ite refugees from Saddam – a two day Bradley ride from the nearest PX. Everyone ran out of cigarettes and our company XO slipped away for four days to bring us cigarettes. I had my mother and my wife both sent me cigarettes and they were all gone the first day I had them.
The USAToday article I read cited some nimrod in California who obviously has never been in the military recently;
The military complicates attempts to curb tobacco use by subsidizing tobacco products for troops who buy them at base exchanges and commissaries, says Kenneth Kizer, a committee member and architect of California’s anti-tobacco program.
The PX quit selling cut-rate smokes more than ten years ago. They survey the cost of cigarettes outside the gate these days and sell cigarettes on base for the same price as the local vendors – including sales tax. I remember when the Commissary on Howard AFB in Panama sold a carton for $1.25. Now the Commissary at Walter Reed (the PX is in Maryland) sells them for more than $50/carton while ten miles away the Commissary at Fort Meyers. VA sells them for about $35/carton. Kizer should do his homework before he spouts off.
Do I think folks should smoke? Nope. I’d quit if for a minute I didn’t enjoy it so much. I love a good cigar (something my non-smoking son and I share) and I’ve been known to dip and take a chaw on occasion (there’s an old railroad spittoon on my porch for the occasion).
In fact, many of us military bloggers stood out on the balcony of the convention the first night puffing on big cigars. Mr. Goody Two Shoes, a certain lobbyist I know intimately who blogs, shoved some dip in his mouth while we were observing a hippie protest a few months back.
So how will the military enforce a ban? Are they going to give the troops a monthly urinalysis? If they dip or chew, the urinalysis can’t tell tell the difference between nicotine from smoke or chaw.
Smoking is part of the military culture, which is probably why the Left is going after the practice. They hate the US military and everything that makes it the awesome force in the world that it is, and they get giddy at the prospect of dismantling it, a tiny piece at a time.
Seein’s how the military is the Left’s social guinea pig, how long before the smoking nazis try to get the entire country to follow suit? Of course, this is more important than fighting terrorists, isn’t it? I’d like to see the Left take an interest in keeping the country safe as much as they worry about ancillary bullshit.
Category: Military issues
And the idiots can’t tell the difference between “subsidized” and “tax-free”. When I smoked (I quit after I got off my last boat in 1996), sea stores had them for $3/carton, with the tax-free stamps on them. God help you if you got them before you went underway or were caught on the beach with them (unless you had just come back from ‘Pac.) And while I would prefer smoke-free environments, I’m not in favor of telling someone they can or can’t smoke as long as it isn’t a safety issue. Just my .02.
I used to smoke. I have generally quit smoking now except for the odd one here and there, particular whilst drinking. I miss it every day. I really enjoyed smoking. Shame it’s so bad for you (note: a smoker who engages in regular excercise has a better health expectancy than someone who does not engage in regular excercise and does not smoke-obviously, non-smokers who engage in regular excercise have the best overall health outlook…maybe we should look at workplaces that encourage regular excercise…oh wait…military) Anyway, shouts out to my friends who provide me with my illicit smokes from time to time.
Tobacco use is already banned by TRADOC (no doubt part of the conversion of training from “Shoot, move, communicate, kill” to Group Hugs and Trust Falls) This has obviously stopped Drill Sergeants from dipping. Wait, they haven’t stopped? Oops.
Telling someone taking incoming 7.62 rounds and RPG’s that they shouldn’t smoke because it’s bad for you should be a one way ticket to Rochambeau-land in my book. Sometimes when you get stressed up, a cool, relaxing smoke is all that stands between you and strangling a MF who caught you at the wrong time.
Is tobacco smoke any more damaging than burn pits? SHould we stop fighting enemies who might use chemical weapons because it represents a “health hazard”?
Seeing smoking bans go up in bastions of smoking like NYC, Dublin and Paris have really depressed me. Seeing Virginia enact anti-smoking legislation for bars is having a similar effect.
I’m just tired of watching the choice go out of my life.
What’s the alternative, if you don’t smoke-will that prevent death?
I like the commentary from yesterday’s cartoon (in TAH), Delta Bravo Sierra, “Piss off”. If the Libs are deliberately trying to emasculate the country & the military, they’re going about it the right way.
It’s not so much about smoking, per say, as it is about CHOICE! Let the young soldiers grow up, become adults, and learn how to make CHOICES, even if it is wrong ones. That’s how one learns, by making mistakes, backing up, and trying again.
But then again, that’s not what the libbers want after all, is it? They want the uber-large Nanny-State, where everyone is taken care of from cradle-to-grave, all good choices are made for you, and all problems are solved with a big group hug. Oh, and everyone is kept in an infantile helpless state, always looking up to the elitists to give them guidance at every step in their lives.
Sigh… It’s too bad these idiots don’t learn from history. Look at the USSR, and what ultimately happened to the people and the State. Look at not-so-Great Britian, before & after (but not during) Margaret Thatcher’s Prime Ministership. One could (and some probably have) write entire PhD docteral thesis’ on this subject. But it’s not that difficult to understand. Educate, and people will make their own choices. And invariably, they will be correct choices. Propagandize and forbid, and people will do what you DON’T want, just for spite and the thrill of the forbidden.
I would LOVE to see the look of surprise on the lib elitests faces, but HATE to see the end result of this meddling, when our military becomes weak and ineffectual and we are invaded by an outside country.
Lib Elitest, “Help me, save me, protect me.”
Rest of country, “Meh. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know how to decide.”
“smoke em if you got em”
I think GEN Honore said it best. “When you’re tired and you’ve been going days on end with minimum sleep, and you are not getting the proper meals on time, that hit of tobacco can make a difference.”
Hell, I couldn’t even get my 77F to quit smoking.
This is the left’s inverted value system. Thou shalt not condemn promiscuous sex even if it leads to AIDS, abortion, or infertility due to STD’s, but smoking is a danger so great to oneself and others that we have to ban it in public.
And, so the lib thinking goes, if we can get the military to enforce a ban on smoking, banning it for everyone isn’t that much of a reach. So, we can ban a Legal substance, because we don’t like it? P**s on the idea of responsibility? Check.. Because “we won”..
How much money are base programs going to lose if this is enacted? How many will be cut?
“So how will the military enforce a ban? Are they going to give the troops a monthly urinalysis? If they dip or chew, the urinalysis can’t tell tell the difference between nicotine from smoke or chaw.”
It shows up in the blood. Back in ’93 I was trying to get on with a self insured company, they would not hire smokers. They knew I smoked; I told them I was quitting, but some ***k decided I was a risk. I quit for 3 days and paid for a blood test that proved I had no nicotine for that period of time and they hired me.
It really tee’d me off when I saw the number of people who carried dip in their back pockets at work or got away with smoking cigars on weekends. After I left, the company had to give up their no smokers policy because they drove so many employees to smoking.
I have enjoyed smoking ever since. And, that company taught me that Skoal Bandits are great for long plane flights.
Amen! Excellent blog. What y’all don’t know is that the people putting pressure for ALL smoking bans are the people who PROFIT from them. Who profits from smoking bans? The people who push the patches and gum. Johnson & Johnson owns Nicorette, Nicoderm, Commit and they used their “non” profit “foundation” (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) to give “grants” for tobacco control, including smoking bans. BTW, the RWJF owns MILLIONS of shares of J&J stock so they, too, get rich. When they ban your sugar (J&J owns Splenda) or force the obese to lose weight (they OWN the lapband surgery company), know that it’s all about the money. They’ve exerted a lot of pressure for behavioral change laws (from which they profit). Where is the freedom over our own bodies given to us by our Creator and fought for by good people like John? God help my grandchildren.
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