Tour of Duty, ” Born To Be Wild ” by Steppenwolf
War is not golf Obama, you don’t get creidt for allowing our troops to smoke now if they want to, you should have put a stop to the ban to begin with. ~ Wild Thing
Pentagon won’t ban war-zone smoking, despite study
WASHINGTON
Smoke ’em if you got ’em.
The Pentagon reassured troops Wednesday that it won’t ban tobacco products in war zones. Defense officials hadn’t actually planned to eliminate smoking — at least for now. But fear of a ban arose among some troops after the Defense Department received a study recommending the military move toward becoming tobacco-free — perhaps in about 20 years.
An advocacy group, however, is strongly condemning the push by Pentagon health experts to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end sales of tobacco products on military property. Brian Wise, executive director of Military Families United, decried even the discussion of such a ban.
“With all the issues facing our military today and the risks our troops take to protect our freedom, banning smoking should not even be on the radar screen,” Wise said in a written statement Wednesday.
“Nobody doubts the effects of smoking, but it is not an illegal substance and should not be banned,” he said. “Our troops make enough sacrifices to serve our nation. They give up many of the freedoms civilians enjoy already without being told they cannot partake in yet another otherwise legal activity. Perhaps more than anything, smoking in the field is more about comfort and coping with an often hostile environment.”
Press secretary Geoff Morrell pointedly told a Pentagon news conference that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is not planning to prohibit the use of cigarettes, chewing tobacco or other tobacco products by troops in combat.
“He knows that the situation they are confronting is stressful enough as it is,” Morrell said, noting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I don’t think he is interested in adding to the stress levels by taking away one of the few outlets they may have to relieve stress.”
Criticism of the proposals spread across the Internet and among troops.
“Our troops make enough sacrifices to serve our nation,” said Brian Wise, executive director of the advocacy group Military Families United. “They give up many of the freedoms civilians enjoy already without being told they cannot partake in yet another otherwise legal activity.”
Spc. Charles Rodriguez, 23, said he started smoking long before he joined the Army and that his pack-a-day habit doesn’t affect his physical fitness.
Wild Thing’s comment………
The idea that they are even considering this speaks volumes as to how they don’t have a clue about combat. Or if they do could care less about our troops.
The soldiers deserve to light up from time to time. It’s actually proven that smoking does have a calming effect to the nerves. They are in harms way so I’m not going to deny them a smoke from time to time if they want to. Heck, my dad said that Victory cigarettes used to be part of the mess kit!
This is still Bullshit. What about on Base. They can;t smoke on Base ?, here stateside ? Why is some left-wing advocacy group so concerned whether the troops smoke or not. What business is it of theirs any way ?
That Health care money spent on the Military is BS too. At 19, these are the Healthest People in the country and their biggest Health risk is drinking too much (3.2 Beer).,today though, probably cheap Beer, at the slopchute. But again PC crap probably says they are not old enough to drink. So who is getting all the ‘Money spent on Military Health Care’, ACORN ?
So for right now obama’s giving them a pass, well BFD, that son of a bitch ought to take a hike with some of ‘his ‘ troops, say, a Forced March, in the sand, for 25 miles and when you get a break almost everybody lites up.
I’ve never been on one of those damn marches where you didn’t have to run, (there always seem to be some long legged Leutenant leading, carrying only a .45 and he could stretch it out.)run to keep up and when a well deserved break came almost everybody lites up.
Knowing what a ‘man’ obama is he’d probably be in the ‘Lovers ward’ for two weeks getting daily shots of Pennicillin. What a scumbag.
Amen Mark.
I will admit smoking can be dangerous, my buddy crouched down inside a perimeter bunker, cupped his hands and lit up, Mr Charles gnawed the entire gunport out with green and white tracers, chewed up the bagged walls behind us and we extinguished what was to be a shared cigarette, didn’t need it in fact, so I went back to walking the perimeter where it was safe with my Copenhagen. Lynn, yes, there were 4 to a pack in those mess rations and they were as old as Methuselah, a gift from God himself.
Somebody put his finger up to see which way the winds of public opinion were blowing. These government lackeys are in jobs they know nothing about. They make policies that better people than themselves have to follow. obama has brought on so many followers that his administration looks like an all chiefs, no Indians outfit.
Jack, yeah those C-ration cigarettes were old OMG, if you hadn’t had one for awhile and in the field that’s not unusual, one drag on one of those old camels they’d make you dizzy.
Never got into the Coppenhagen but a good Ole Boy from Kaintucky introduced me to some Beechnut Red, that was some good ‘chewin’ tabacca’.
LMAO Mark, I did it all back then, Beechnut was super, I even used Garrets snuff when I could get it, the younger ones used that local grown crap, not me, saw one too many after Mr. Charles found them whacked out, fact of the matter is I haven’t been drunk since ’68, I’m no tee totaller but that’s another tale, never ever lose self control!!!
Thank you everyone so much.
Uh, lessee. You put ’em in a combat zone, let ’em smoke, and then make ’em quit cold-turkey when they’re stateside??
Do you really want to be around a bunch of combat vets grouchy because they’re going through nicotine withdrawal??
You didn’t think that one all the way through, now did you?
Who wants to fight for a nation that prevents freedom of personal choices?
16 to 20 hour days on the Flight Deck, working cyclic ops and respotting the deck for Air Wing maintenance guys. On occasion, get into Flight Deck Control for a cup of coffee and then to the blueshirt locker for a smoke with said cup of coffee. Later in my career it was jack up the airplane and cycle the gear and fix whatever else needed fixed. Just a sample. Then back to the shop or to Maintenance Control to discuss what needed to be done with the Maint MCPO. Coffee and a smoke was the order of the day. A pcke of smokes went a long way during a normal day at sea on a Forrestal, Kitty Hawk or Nimitz class ship back when. It was part of the job. Nothing more, nothing less. Things went better, especially in that environment of bust ass flight ops. Launch, recovery, respot, repeat many times during the day. Head up on the roof to help out the troubleshooters and final checkers. Yeah, at times, Lord knows, I needed that Marlboro. It took the edge off.
I can’t speak for the Marines and Infantry on the ground. But my Dad’s stories to me as a kid filled me in some.
At least Secretary Gates hs figured this out. But I would put up a sawbuck that says the obamaroids will start screaming for his dismissal.
Lousy Bastards. All of them.