Perhaps one day our culture will grow up enough to stop trying to tell adult women what we can do with our bodies and adult men what they can do with adult women, but in the meantime military men…will continue to seek us out despite the whimsical notions of those who think Nature can be controlled by legislation. – Maggie McNeill
Some of the worst of all lawheads, those most wedded to the farcical concept that reality can be shaped by the declarations of authorities and most detached from the actual consequences such declarations may have, exist in the rarefied atmosphere of high-level military command. Even politicians have to be somewhat concerned about the consequences of their decisions, at least when those consequences are apparent to those they rule; after all, if things get bad enough they can be voted out of office. But military commanders can only be removed from above, not from below; so as long as they please their own masters (which at the very top, means the political establishment), they can count on a long and distinguished career no matter how miserable the troops are or how much morale damage, physical and psychological harm, and friction with allies their orders may cause. Moreover, while a politician cannot readily insulate himself from the complaints of those harmed by his ill-considered diktats, it is only too easy for the Top Brass to shut themselves off from the troops and to ignore their responsibility for the results of their stupidity and shortsightedness.
The prevailing belief in the United States is that sex is unnatural. Now, if asked, most who aren’t totally steeped in religious fanaticism will say the opposite, that sex is normal and natural. But they don’t actually believe this; what they believe is that children are born “pure” and asexual, and remain so indefinitely until they are “sexualized” by outside contamination which ruins their sacred “innocence”. Furthermore, they believe that even adults deprived of external sexual imagery or interaction will remain relatively uninterested in sex until such time as the government declares it’s acceptable for them to have it, and that sex without a government license is always harmful to women unless it’s completely buried inside a childish romantic fantasy. The average American believes that “illicit” (i.e. unlicensed) sex is not only “harmful” in some way he cannot adequately explain, but also excites desire in some way that “good” sex does not, leading to “addiction”, “exploitation”, “negative secondary effects” and other vague bugaboos for which not the slightest proof exists in reality. Of course, regular readers know the opposite is true; porn and readily-available prostitution decrease rape and other social ills rather than increasing them, and men deprived of sexual stimulation become erratic and unhealthy rather than lapsing into a docile, effeminate and celibate state.
A well-run military establishment would recognize that if there really is an “epidemic” of sexual assaults within the corps, the way to solving it is not to embrace moronic feminist assertions that “rape is caused by rage, not lust”, nor to “crack down” on assaults as though servicemen were unruly children in need of being “scared straight”. No, Toru Hashimoto was right (though he seems unable to grasp the whole “consent” thing); military men do need “legal facilities for releasing sexual energy” in order to avoid problems which in extreme cases can grow into violence. Unfortunately, the US military establishment is not well-run, and the Pentagon is far more concerned with promoting the government’s current political agenda than with the health and well-being of the troops, and so we get idiocy like this:
The U.S. military is cracking down on troops who support businesses connected to human trafficking, blocking airmen from spending money at so-called “juicy bars” and reminding all personnel of the prevalence of the problem businesses around bases in South Korea. Leaders in the region have issued a series of directives to remind troops that prostitution and human trafficking are illegal…the three-star general in charge of the 7th Air Force in South Korea issued a stern warning…that…“Airmen…shall not provide money or anything of value to an employee or establishment…for the primary purpose of obtaining…company or companionship”…The prohibitions include paying fees to play darts, pool or other entertainment or buying a drink or a souvenir in exchange for an employee’s company …“disreputable establishments” near Air Force bases…take advantage of people, usually young women, and force them to work in bars. The employees are subjected to debt bondage and forced to sell themselves as “companions”…
Of course, we know the truth about this so-called “force”, and understand that for the military to deny these young women the right to make a living by the most lucrative means available to them keeps them in poverty and may, like “end demand” schemes everywhere, force them into worse situations. This destructive and wrongheaded policy helps nobody but the politicians who wish to pander to the whimsical notions of fanatics, but harms a great many people: the young men deprived of an outlet for their natural sexual urges; the young women in host countries deprived of the best means of income available to them; the other young men and women subjected to sexual assault by those whose judgment and self-control has been eroded by a policy no less inhumane than starving them and depriving them of shelter; the businesses cheated of income from a large segment of the population in their areas; and the lower-echelon officers and NCOs who will be blamed for the damage caused by the refusal of their superiors to face reality.
The modern US military seems to have two goals:
1. Goal One: The US military is to be an effective fighting force which can win battles.
2. Goal Two: the US military is a place where endless social experiments can be tried out before being brought to other institutions.
This is not really a new idea. The concept of alcohol prohibition, for example, was gaining steam during the American Civil War. However, the American General Ulysses S. Grant was well known to enjoy a drink or three. Well, there was a good deal of political pressure put on Lincoln to remove Grant by temperance organizations.
Lincoln responded, “Find out what Grant drinks and send a barrel of it to each of my other generals!”
Of course, these days, for whatever reason, the social experiments are seen as more important than battlefield victories.
The Navy once had a goal to have a “Smoke Free” Navy by the year 2000. LOL – more Sailors smoke today than ever!
One Submarine in PacFlt instituted a “no smoking – not anywhere on this ship” policy. Stupid CO was so proud of it – he published it in a Navy manning magazine called “LINK” – which every Sailor reads.
I worked a tour in manpower – that CO called me up and said … “Hey, I have all these open billets on my ship – I need people – where are they?”
I told him … “No one wants to go to your ship because of your no-smoking policy – and you’re not high enough priority for me to “slam” anyone to your command against their will. I’m “selling” your boat to Sailors – but that LINK article you wrote is killing us!”
He immediately rescinded his “no smoking – not anywhere on my boat” policy!
This doesn’t surprise me somehow.
Wouldn’t smoking consume extra oxygen and potentially cause problems in a submarine because of that, though?
Not enough to matter
On nuclear boats we had Electrostatic “precipitators” to scrub smoke and other impurities from the atmosphere.
Also – there’s an evolution called “ventilating” where you induct fresh outside air and expel stale internal air. Unless a submarine is on station performing it’s mission – “ventilating” happens quite regularly when the ship goes to Periscope Depth.
I remember one time – we had not ventilated in 30 days … when we finally did – the fresh air made me throw up as soon as it hit my nose – and a lot of other guys did too. We had “adapted” to the stale air I suppose.
Submarines – that’s a hard life bro and it does shit to you. Nothing permanent, I don’t think – unless you believe the rumors that all of us can only sire daughters because our male sperm has been killed off by the nuke reactor!
If that were true then all those Russians smoking aboard the Red October were committing suicide. 🙂
Racial integration was one such social experiment. Which is why we’re all speaking German today. What? We won the war? Oh wow.
I’ll be very interested to see krulac’s response to this article, Maggie!
Krulac’s response? Maggie you have written an awesome article! There is nothing you have written here that I disagree with.
I especially like this … it shows an astonishing amount of enlightenment for someone who has nothing to do with the military (though perhaps she had many military “clients” back in the day! 😉 ).
Spot on.
I would say that the path to O6 is fairly based on merit. But the path to O7 and above – those are political selections. I saw quite a few OUTSTANDING O6’s that were NEVER advanced to O7. I saw quite a few men advanced to O7 who I knew – were just blowhard mouthpieces for military dogma. They would have supported anything the Commander in Chief told them to.
Which is why – if I ever owned a company – I would not hire an Admiral to run it.
Let me tell you how our military runs … and how all these “politically correct” policies are resolved in the most effective War Machine the world has ever seen.
It’s the NCO’s. Figures I would say that – since I was one – but it’s completely true. It’s the NCO’s who determine what policies are REAL – and should be enforced, and which ones are simply political pap. Of course – if they make a wrong decision – they get hung for it. They are expected to make these kinds of decisions – but you won’t find that written in any manual – and that’s because when they get caught making these decisions – they get shot for making them. Yes, the military has a “fall guy” built in for any situation – it’s the NCO – the Non-Commissioned Officer.
Here’s an example. My ship pulled into Sydney, Australia – one of the most safe ports in the world. However, because Australia falls under the 7th Fleet’s AOR (Area of Responsibility) – we had to follow 7th Fleet liberty rules. Those rules said that every off-duty Sailor had to have a LIBERTY BUDDY with them at all time when they were off the ship. Now, I had this one guy – a good Sailor – he didn’t have a lot of confidence and he didn’t have great success with women. Well, something about Australian women and American Sailors – there’s a natural attraction (and I would say there’s a natural attraction for American women and Australian Sailors). Anyway – he wanted to take this girl he met out to the movies – but he didn’t want a Liberty buddy tagging along. I gave him the permission to take that girl out on his own – with the understanding that, if he was discovered – I would hang for it and not him. That worked out.
Another issue – every command has a “suggestion box” … they rarely have “suggestions” deposited into them though – usually they are “rat-out” boxes. Busy-bodies anonymously “dump” dirt on other people at the command into those boxes. One “suggestion” I got went like this … “Petty Officer X and Petty Officer Y are lesbian lovers and can be frequently seen kissing at (an offbase establishment).”
Now – I was OBLIGATED to take that note to the Commanding Officer. However, I did not. Everyone knew those girls were lesbians – and I wasn’t happy that a romantic relationship developed between two Sailors of ANY sexual orientation (it’s just not conducive to good order and discipline) – but there was NOTHING I could do legally to break up a relationship that didn’t involve sex or some other intimate conduct INSIDE the lifelines of the ship. What these girls did at off-base establishments was their own business.
Had I given that note to the CO – he would have been obligated to do something about two lesbian lovers aboard his ship. But that’s bullshit – because two semi-closeted lesbians on the ship don’t impact the mission in the slightest (though the relationship between them did – but as I stated, legally I couldn’t take action on stuff that happened off ship).
So I withheld the note – tore it up and shit-canned it. Had that been discovered by anyone – it would have been the end of my career. I actually told my CO about this a few years ago after we both were retired – and he said … “That’s what Master Chief’s do you know – they identify the right thing to do and do it.” I told him … “Yes, but that is bullshit that it’s put on our shoulders to cut through all the bullshit and risk our careers making calls like this.” He told me – “That’s how the Navy has always worked – you could have been an officer, and you’d have retired with a lot more money – but you didn’t go that route – so something in you enjoyed playing this role.”
And – he’s right. But in many ways I’m an idiot so “enjoying” being in this position doesn’t make it right for other NCO’s to be put in it too. I’m a danger freak. I don’t know why I’m not addicted to gambling in Casinos … I certainly had a lot of fun playing the odds in the Navy I’ll tell you.
The last instance is prostitution. It’s funny – as a Submarine Chief of the Boat and later a Cruiser Command Master Chief – it wasn’t unusual for the ship to pull into a new port – and the CO and XO would go out and meet the mayor and the Rotary Club. Me? Frequently I would be meeting with a local “Madame” of a brothel – sometimes several brothels. Now – I want to make this clear – I am a DOG – but during my time in the Navy I never strayed from my wife – ever. I didn’t meet these “madames” for my own sexual satisfaction – I met them to strike up a relationship with someone who would be dealing with a LOT of my Sailors when they were ashore on liberty. I would meet them and say … “I’m Master Chief Krulac – from USS “X” … we’re in port – you’ve probably already seen some of my Sailors – here’s my cellphone number – if YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ONE – please call me and I guarantee you I will be able to handle it for you without police involvement.”
I used to arrange “pick up” and “drop off” points for the Sailors to get to these brothels. I kept everything on the “down-low”. I did this because I was a fucking damn good Master Chief – and I KNEW the role these “hookers” played in keeping my Sailors sane. When I was a single Sailor – many of those women kept ME sane.
And the CO knew I was doing this – even though I didn’t tell him – because he knew how Master Chief’s operated. Plausible deniability – that’s what I gave him – I was an expert at it.
This is how the military really works – maybe it’s worked that way since the days of the Roman Legions.
Great article, Maggie!
Just want to clarify on that suggestion box … I did shit-can the allegations of lesbianism leveled on those two Sailors – but … at a previous command, I reached in and pulled out a “suggestion” that FINGERED ME for steroid use. There was no proof in it … just simply … “Hey how is it that a 38 year old man is in the shape that Master Chief Krulac is? Steroids – that’s what it is!”
I TOOK that suggestion to the Admiral I worked for. He blew it off – and I demanded a steroid test – he didn’t even know how to order one – so I gave his Flag Writer the instruction and he did a steroid test on me. It came back clean … and it was very nice of him to mention at an all hands gathering that “Yes” he had received the information that “Master Chief” was a steroid abuser but he had “tested” me and I had come back negative. He stated … “So I’ve asked Master Chief to tone down his workouts – so he doesn’t so much like a Professional Wrestler – and that way maybe BUSY BODIES who don’t know what they’re talking about won’t drop anonymous complaints in the suggestion box about him!”
LOL – THAT particular Admiral was awesome – but he never made it above one-star (O-7)
Coming from you, that’s high praise indeed. 🙂
I second what Krulac said as I was in the U.S. Army and am an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran.
Virtually everything you say about the U.S. Navy is also true about the U.S. Army. Sexual assaults have increased dramaticly in the past few years. The Air Force has a tendency to start this don’t touch sex workers or places that might be construed as places where sex workers work( hostess “juicy” bar women, prostitutes, off installation barber shops in Korea etc.) and then the rest of the branches of service follow in my opinion. Note that the U.S. Air Force has a higher percentage of women than any other branch of military service at 20%. Then comes the U.S. Navy 17%, U.S. Army 14%, and finally U.S. Marines 7%for percentage of women. I rounded up less than 1% on these numbers. There used to be a time in South Korea when the U.S. military wasn’t wasting nearly as much on resources and manpower actively looking for men who visited places which might be construed as sex worker places or sex workers. Of course those were the days when the threat of North Korea was genuinely taken more seriously than today. It is also was a time when there were fewer percentage of women in the military. It was also a time when men were encouraged to be men and heterosexuality in men was encouraged and respected unlike today in my opinion.
Sure, soldiers and sailors will stop seeing sex workers because the command tells them to. And I’ll be able to grow oranges in my garden in northern Wisconsin.
These people risk their lives. At least let them have some fun.
It’s more than just fun though for guys – I can’t explain it.
I will tell you that one time, in Iraq – I had the sad duty to recover the remains of a young 22 year old Marine. The LZ was hot … he had stepped on a mine … and was blown to pieces. Me and a Navy corpsman recovered his body while the Marines were laying down fire on some hills to keep some insurgents pinned down long enough for us to lift off the helos.
I was numb during all this. Me and the corpsmen were doing this “work” without a stitch of emotion. I simply had to “turn off” parts of my brain in order to accomplish this.
Everyone got in the chopper … the Gunny looked at me and said … “Did you get him?” and I said … “Yeah … me and the corpsman”. And he looked at me and said … “No, did you get ALL of him?”
At that moment I broke down. Fuck it’s hard to write this.
That was a good kid that died – 22 years old – that was all the life he got on this planet. If you were to view a movie of that kid’s life – wouldn’t you hope, before you viewed it – that it would be full of the things that make life WORTH living? Wouldn’t you want that kid to have at least experienced SOME of what all the rest of us who are still here experienced?
If, at some point in that “movie” – as he was on his way to Iraq – he walked into a brothel and had a good time with a lady there – wouldn’t ANYONE be thankful for that scene? That he had experienced that before his life was taken.
Honestly – I cannot believe people. Every year I have to take that bullshit Human Trafficking “training” and it angers me to no end – all of the lies. Maggie hates it as much as I do because I always “vent” about it by sending her a few emails!
Human trafficking “training”? Ew. I just imagined Nick Kristof appearing in camo, instructing “the troops” on how to properly live-Tweet brothel raids.
It’s web based training and it’s pretty slick. I need to figure out a way to “capture” it next time I do it and put it up on my blog or something. I have to do it annually. I mean – can you imagine your employer sitting you down to a training course and you see the question … “How many slaves are there worldwide?” and you actually have to check a bullshit answer in order to proceed to the next screen?
It’s seriously infuriating.
If you can without getting caught that is!
“No, did you get ALL of him?”
I’ve seen and certified dead too many kids in their mid-teens, ‘own goals’ they were called; pawns in games played by their masters. And far, far too many others.
In one particularly gruesome explosion, the initial announcement was that four people had been killed. The pathologist found an ‘extra’ penis, but no other bits were recovered; the press had to then say that there were five victims.
And, krulac, I know exactly how you feel.
Yeah I know you do. I didn’t bury that many kids (only 6 or so and most weren’t combat deaths) … but it feels like a million and there is a A LOT of guilt and anger – because the “life / death” equation doesn’t take into account how much a guy has lived. I could have died 20 years ago honestly and it wouldn’t have been a tragedy – I’ve lived a wonderful life. I certainly deserved to “get it” that day more than that kid did.
And then there is always a part of me – that I HATE is inside me – that is thankful it wasn’t me. I wish I could burn that part out.
It’s said, that as a surgeon, once you stop sweating during a procedure you know it’s time to give up; and it’s so true. If it’s not getting to you, well, you are then an automaton, nothing more.
Even if our backgrounds are so dissimilar, I do know how you feel, because I’ve been there too; I’ve not buried my comrades, but I’ve talked to their relatives, their mothers; I’ve seen what they might have been, what they didn’t experience, what should have been; and realised that I could not change a thing.
Wilfred Owen, the First World I poet wrote:
“The Old Lie; dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori”.
[It is sweet and noble to die for your country.]
No, it isn’t. It’s a waste, it is a Lie.
The Lincoln story makes it clear that in a wartime military, results count for more than methods. In a peacetime military, the reverse is true; methods matter more than results. You can survive failure in a peacetime military if you went by the book, even if the mission failed; conversely, in a real wartime military success answers all objections about methods, and failure can’t be excused by claiming you followed all procedures.
“Train” soldiers all you want, but three things are true when the military is in town: there will be drinking, there will be swearing, and their will be prostitutes. All of this is an expensive dog-and-pony show. Dad was Navy, and I love our military, but let’s stop with an idealized version of them and understand the reality of how they act- and I’m not in the least offended (I’d certainly want in on the drinks in the least). Sad that General Butler in the Civil War show more sense about prostitution the Civil War than these twits do now.
This is a great article Maggie.
My dad was stationed in Germany with the 2nd Armored Division (“Hell On Wheels”) in the late 40s. Because of his good language skills he was made a courtroom interpreter for the JAG.
On leave nights, everyone fought to be his best buddy on a visit to the local brothel. They wanted him to interpret business negotiations in German. 😉 He also had to learn local sex slang in order to interpret properly. He actually didn’t know how to say “Condom” in German, so he (facepalm) looked it up in a dictionary, where he got “empfängnisverheutungsmittel”. He brought that out in court to grunts of incomprehension. Apparently back then, it was common knowledge that a condom is called “ein gummi”. LOL.
Somewhere I’ve got a pic of him and his best buddy in uniform, in Bremen, leaning over the hood of their Ford Anglia. It’s awesome. Must find it.
Looks like schoolgirls in Okinawa are in for a hard time.
It’s actually a few idiots in Okinawa and Yokosuka that caused the Navy to overreact and implement those punitive liberty restrictions in 7th fleet AOR. They punish everyone for the stupidity of the few.
I got a call one day from Washington DC asking me to go to 7th fleet in Sasebo and work for the Admiral there to “fix” those problems. I told the guy – who worked for the Master Chief of the Navy … “Sure, but I’m going to tell him to crucify the lawbreakers and remove restrictions on the 99 percent of well behaved Sailors and Marines.”
That wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear – and I didn’t get another phone call!
Damn. My comment got lost as my internet connection died as I was typing the reply. I’m comforted by your writing. In the sea of stupid that I swim in daily, it is comforting to see common sense and reason elsewhere in the world
Yeah, trying to make soldiers, airmen, and sailors into asexual Myrmidons is not a good idea. We’re not yet to the point where all of our warriors can be replaced by machines.
Hey, what about replacing politicians with machines? Some sort of open source coding, natch.
Hasn’t it already been done?
I was thinking a little more Iain M. Banks Culture series, but yeah.
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