Troops in Iraq allowed to drink beer on Super Bowl Sunday!

[jkm_101_fso]

GEN Odierno is awesome.

For One Night, GIs in Iraq Get a Taste of Home: Football and Beer
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 9, 2009; Page A12

BAGHDAD, Jan. 8 -- Of all the missives the top U.S. military commander in Iraq has signed, probably none generated more cheer than the one issued this week authorizing all U.S. troops to drink beer.

Two catches: only two per person and only on Super Bowl night.

The waiver, issued Wednesday by Gen. Ray Odierno, marks the first time all American service members in Iraq will be allowed to break the ban on liquor in combat zones without risking being court-martialed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...=moreheadlines

[Bob's World]

Its sad when the only thing you have to celebrate is 4-hour ceasefire in the beatings.

We don't have to be an alcohol-fueled army like the ones that fought every war in the history of man prior to the first Gulf War; but there is no excuse for not having 2-beer a day ration for our soldiers to consume in the quantitiy and manner they choose, as reasonably controlled and supervised by their immediate chain of command.

Perhaps this is a chink in the armor of this long enduring travesty.

[Ken White]

Perhaps this is a chink in the armor of this long enduring travesty.

travesty of which you speak? Just idly curious.

[Bob's World]

the no alcohol policy

[Cavguy]

the no alcohol policy

The long takeover of the Army by the Women's Christian Temperance Union?


As late as 2002 we were allowed to have beer @ Tank Table VIII following a successful qualification run. Then MG Sanchez in late 2002 prohibited drinking while training in Bavaria under any circumstances. My BN CO tried it anyway at our Jan 03 gunnery and got reamed for it.

I have a forever lasting respect for MG Zilmer and the USMC for allowing all the Army troops serving in 1 MEF to have 2 beers in celebration of the USMC birthday. It obviously has taken until 2009 for the Army to consider the same.

Hopefully the pendulum is swinging back some.

[Ken White]

Not a particularly wise policy. It really needs a relook.

I recall no alcohol related problems in either Korea or Viet Nam. In the Dominican Republic, for three days, everyone drank beer when the erroneous word got out the rebels had poisoned the water...

The Table VIII tale doesn't surprise me, IIRC the same guy went into Kosovo, found the 82d had platoon leaders and even occasional squad leaders out being de facto Mayors of villages and doing a good job of keeping the peace, pulled them in, insisted on building the 900+ acre Fort Bonehead Apache (which was almost as dumb as occupying former Saddam palaces in Iraq IMO) and put out the diktat that all patrols would have a field grade accompanying -- and issued G.O. Number 1, no booze...

That is beyond travesty...

[Schmedlap]

I don't think this would have been possible on any of my deployments, simply due to the logistics, unless beer is palletized like bottled water and there were a super special LOGPAC run on Super Sunday. It seems foolish to even ponder it - a special beer shipment to the FOB/LSA at least one day before Super Sunday. I am sure this requires guards and accountability procedures almost akin to arms room SOPs. Bn support platoon makes a special trip to receive it, unless it happens to fall on the day that they normally go to the FOB/LSA, then they bring it to the Bn. Unless there is a scheduled LOGPAC for that day from Bn to Co/Plt (generally not the case), then it sits at Bn and probably requires someone to guard it. When it finally does get sent to company/platoon, I suppose the guys on "red" cycle consume their 2 beers as they rotate off of guard duty. And the guys out in sector (strongpoints/ambushes/sniper recon/etc) - I guess we call them in early (beer first, mission second) or just let them drink it on the following day and don't tell anyone (especially not the General)?

Talk to someone currently serving in a staff billet in theater and I guarantee many units have tasked some Captain or Major to honcho this effort - to coordinate the special trip to pick it up, to figure out the distribution time/place/quantity, accountability procedures - this is a good solid 20 PowerPoint slides with lots of potential for flashy images, probably including 2 or 3 slides that have animations and at least 1 with sound.

This sounds like one of those ideas that some folks on the FOB cheer for, but the guys in the patrol bases and outposts react to in the same way that they react to "TGIF!" Seems like a morale booster for people who really shouldn't need one.

[Hacksaw]

Amazing the value of common sense/decency...

Causes me to remember how a good friend had two mini-bottles of Jack shipped in the mail and subsequently saved, so as to toast the birth of my first daughter in the middle of the Iraqi desert during Desert Storm.

Cheers Lew!