The long history of the military and cigarettes

Navy Bans Tobacco Use on Its Submarine Fleet

Excerpt:

The Navy is cognizant that military service is stressful, especially in long and lonely deployments under the sea. Everybody is aware that smoking is a legal, if harmful, stress reliever.

So the Navy banned smoking aboard submarines not with the stated purpose of curing the smokers, but of protecting nonsmoking submarine crew members from the threat of heart and lung disease from secondhand smoke.

“Recent testing has proven that, despite our atmosphere purification technology, there are unacceptable levels of secondhand smoke in the atmosphere of a submerged submarine,” said Vice Adm. John J. Donnelly, commander of submarine forces. “The only way to eliminate risk to our nonsmoking sailors is to stop smoking aboard our submarines.”

The Navy did not order its submariners to quit cold turkey. For the 5,000 sailors who admitted to being smokers among the submarine fleet’s 13,000 crew members — that is just shy of 40 percent — the ban goes into effect at the end of the year.

In the meantime, a senior petty officer aboard each hunter-killer submarine and each nuclear ballistic missile boat will serve as a “smoking cessation coordinator,” helping sailors wean themselves off the habit through discipline — and a ready supply of nicotine gum, nicotine patches and other replacement therapies.

There are no plans to impose a “smokeless Navy.” Aboard surface warships, smoking is allowed in specially designated — and open — areas. Across the Navy, those who wish to quit smoking can attend classroom programs. And in many Navy and Marine Corps locations, those wishing to quit can receive help from physicians, dentists and pharmacists during a health care visit.

About one-third of all military personnel say they are smokers. While smoking is banned in basic training, more than a third of the current smokers across the armed services say they started after they went on active duty.

The military and cigarettes have a long history, in both combat practice and combat lore. When America went to war in the past, tobacco went with them and cigarettes were part of military rations. But they are no longer contained in the Meals Ready to Eat field food packages, as the Defense Department does not want to officially encourage smoking.

Comment: Cigarettes used to be part of the military ration

China: Nuke subs ... threat to Taiwan?

China to Unveil Nuclear Submarines

Excerpt:

A senior Chinese naval officer said that China would unveil its nuclear submarines to the public on Thursday as part of an international review of the country’s naval fleet “aimed at promoting understanding about China’s military development,” according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency.

The appearance of the submarines, in the northeastern port city of Qingdao, would be the first time that China has publicly shown the vessels. They are among the most powerful ships in the Chinese Navy.

...

China’s main military concern, though, is Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that China says must be reunited with the mainland and that the United States supports with arms sales. Some Taiwanese strongly advocate open independence, and at times China has threatened the island with violence, but relations between Beijing and Taipei have improved since the election last year of Ma Ying-jeou as president of Taiwan. Mr. Ma rejects any notion of declaring independence.

The Pentagon released a study on March 25 that said that the Chinese government is seeking weapons and technology to disrupt the traditional advantages of the American military, and that the veil of secrecy the Chinese government has thrown over its military could lead to a miscalculation or conflict between the two nations. According to the report, a main goal of China’s military buildup is to have sufficient forces on hand in the event of war across the Taiwan Strait.

Comment: More on China's military.

Let the patriot losers die and be maimed

Salon: Should I go to grad school or join the military?

Excerpt:

... it is understandable that you are considering alternatives. But this is not such a good time to join the military. For one thing, there are wars going on. Many men and women are dying in these wars. Many are being maimed. It's terrible.

Comment: That's right .... the best and the brightest need to let others serve our country!

Where it is always Memorial Day

The Knock on the Door

Excerpt:

Sometimes Beck would linger in his vehicle in front of an American home, like that of the parents of Lance Cpl. Kyle Burns in Laramie, Wyo. Beck knew that, as Jim Sheeler writes, every second he waited "was one more tick of his wristwatch that, for the family inside the house, everything remained the same."


Beck — now Lt. Col. Beck — was a CACO, a casualty assistance calls officer whose duty was to inform a spouse or parents that their Marine had been killed. He is the scarlet thread — like the stripes on Marines' dress-blue trousers, symbolizing shed blood — that connects the heart-rending stories in Sheeler's "Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives." The book, which proves that the phrase "literary journalism" is not an oxymoron, expands the meticulous and marvelously modulated reporting that he did for the Rocky Mountain News and for which he received a Pulitzer Prize. His subject is how America honors fallen warriors.


More precisely, it is about how the military honors them. The nation, as Marine Sgt. Damon Cecil says, "has changed the channel." Still, Sheeler sees civilians getting glimpses of those who have sacrificed everything. The glimpses come as the fallen are escorted home. When an airline passenger, noting an escort's uniform, asked if the sergeant was going to or coming from the war, he repeated words the military had told him to say: "I'm escorting a fallen Marine home to his family from the situation in Iraq."

Comment: Teaful read. Lest we forget!

The sign of "coercion"

The picture shows that this soldier has been thru Survival School and learned his lessons well. He's giving the sign of "coercion" with his left hand. These hand signs are taught in survival school to be used by POW's as a method of posing messages back to our intelligence services who may view the photo or video. This guy was obviously being coerced into shaking hands with Hillary Clinton. It's ironic how little she knew that he would so inform us about the photo---perhaps because she's never understood our military to begin with.

Comment: Sent to me by Pastor Doug Wise of Airport Road Baptist, Aurora, CO

Draft the old?

Uncle Sam Wants You, Gramps - How come "national service" proponents never talk about drafting the old?

Excerpt:

One of the most interesting (and in my view sinister) aspects of proposals for mandatory "national service" is that they virtually always target only the young, usually 18- to 21-year-olds. This might be understandable if the proposals were limited to military service. But most current proposals (including those by Rep. Charles Rangel, Sen. John McCain, Bill Buckley, the Democratic Leadership Conference and Rep. Rahm Emanuel), incorporate civilian service as well. When it comes to office work and light menial labor, there are many elderly and middle-aged people who can do the job just as well as 18-21 year olds can, if not better.

Indeed, the moral case for conscripting the elderly for civilian service is arguably stronger than that for drafting the young. Many elderly people are healthy enough to perform nonstrenuous forms of "national service." Unlike the young, the elderly usually won't have to postpone careers, marriage and educational opportunities to fulfill their forced-labor obligations. Moreover, the elderly, to a far greater extent than the young, are beneficiaries of massive government redistributive programs, such as Social Security and Medicare--programs that transfer enormous amounts of wealth from other age groups to themselves. Nonelderly poor people who receive welfare benefits are required to work (or at least be looking for work) under the 1996 welfare reform law; it stands to reason that the elderly (most of whom are far from poor) can be required to work for the vastly larger government benefits that they receive.

Middle-aged people are also not obviously inferior candidates for civilian "national service" than the young. I know I could do most kinds of service better today than when I was 18. To be clear, I am not arguing for imposing forced labor on the elderly or the middle-aged; but I do believe that doing so would be no worse than imposing that burden on the young.


Comment: If the Marines would take a 58 year old guy who walked with crutches, I would go! I could serve in some IT function! But the purpose of the article is to highlight the inconsistencies in the idea of a national draft for "national service"!

A toast to my son, Roger

Peggy Noonan: A toast to American troops, then and now

Excerpt:

A funny thing. We're so used to thinking of American troops as good guys that we forget: They're good guys! They have American class.
----
Whatever is decided in Washington I hope our soldiers know what we really think of them, and what millions in Iraq must, also. I hope some day they get some earned tenderness, and wind up over the hills of Iraq, and land, and an old guy comes out and says, "Are you an American?" And they say yes and he says, "A toast, to old times."

Comment: Roger exited the USMC Reserves today after 75 months of service.

1. I remember the day he enlisted. He did it without asking my advice, but by telling me (the day before) "tomorrow I am enlisting in the Marines".
   
2. I tried to dissuade him. I asked him to consider the Air Force or the Navy. But he was adamant about joining the Marines.
   
3. On the Tuesday after Memorial Day 2001, he left for San Diego for boot camp. I wrote to him almost every day. He came back from boot camp with many of my letters unopened - he was just so busy that he could not read letters every day! (He since opened and read them.
   
4. On 9/11 he was in combat training at Camp Pendleton, California. He happened to cut himself that day and had to be seen by a Navy medic! He was told then about the events of 911.
   
5. One might think - "oh a reservist! How hard could that be?". Roger was on active duty for over 2 1/2 years of his six years in the Marines. He was a freshman at St Cloud State when the Iraqi war commenced. He was called up and sent to Cherry Point for a year. Back to St Cloud for another semester. Then he volunteered (on July 5th, 2004) to go to Iraq with another unit. He was again activated for another year and spent 7 months in Iraq.
   
6. Leaving the Marines is tough for Roger. He aspires to get his bachelor's degree in Economics. He also works full time at Wells Fargo. He knows he cannot do all three: work, school, and the reserves. And so he made the difficult decision to not re-enlist!
   

My Son is one of those "good guys" with "American class". He is a true patriot who loves his country enough to serve it. He has a unique combination of toughness and gentleness. He is more of a man than I ever was. I admire him and I salute him! Thank you Roger for your service to our country!

2007 West Point Graduates

New York Region
Iraq Presents Graduating Class at West Point With New Challenges
By MICHAEL WILSON
Published: May 25, 2007
The war in Iraq has hovered over the West Point class of 2007, perhaps more than any class before.

Iraq Presents Graduating Class at West Point With New Challenges

Excerpts:

The war in Iraq has hovered over the class of 2007, perhaps more than any class before. The 1,000-plus cadets graduating on Saturday were the first to enter West Point after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Most arrived on campus in June of that year.

The events of the last four years have directly shaped the curriculum at West Point, as instructors who for years taught the fine points of battlefield strategy found themselves leading drills with fake bombs made of pop bottles and clocks. “Ain’t no front line anymore,” Colonel Jones said. “It’s all front line.”

....

of the graduating class of 2007, 14 percent agreed to serve eight years of active duty instead of the required five, in exchange for being able to choose their branch of service, a privilege generally held for top students in a class. The largest number of cadets chose infantry, followed by aviation and armor.

Comments: Although I do not know any of them, I am proud of them and commend them for their patriotism and their willingness to serve our country! (The picture is from the 2006 graduating class)