You probably heard over the weekend about the five West Point cadets on spring break in Florida who overdosed on cocaine mixed with fentanyl. I certainly did. My email and private messages lit up with alerts and links to stories about it. All five, as well as a civilian, were treated with the opioid antagonist Narcan at the scene and four of the cadets were taken to the hospital. Two were described as in critical condition and were intubated.
Old friend, You know I lived it with you. You presented more elegantly than I ever could, and I salute you. So sad, so true. Your prediction of the Army’s response is accurate. Bless you and thank you for all you have done and still do as the for the consummate professional you have always been.🪖👍
Alcohol, as we all know, is a depressant, a bliss-killer. It's not surprising that such a substance would be popular in a Judeo-Christian nation where bliss is seen as something to be avoided and especially in the military where bliss would be downright out of place. When I was in the Army at Ft. Bragg 1969,70,71 (XVIII Abn Corps) the resident division, the 82d Airborne was called "The Jumping Junkies". There was more heroin sold on Fort Bragg than in New York City at the time. Today's hard drugs don't allow a second chance.
Oh, don't I know what you're talking about. Drinking was the thing to do. I remember that the end of my father's time was due to the fact that while he was away on a very important mission to Paris, my mother did not comport herself very well, and I had to get the neighbors to help me put things right.
Undoubtedly that got passed up the chain of command and within a year, my father had retired voluntarily at his own request. He once bitterly told me that had things been different, he would have made General..but for my mother.
He wasn't a saint, either, and I do believe that the culture of drinking in the Officer's Row (and quarters, and mess) made him and my mother alcoholics. It eventually shortened both of their lives.
So now it's another drug-which I hope and pray the Army takes more seriously than the drinking. They can't have drug addicts firing guns at the enemy.
I think personally that the military encourages drinking because if you sit down and actually assess what your mission is to be in the military, 'defending your country' often means killing other foreign people and losing your friends in battle.
Drinking makes you forget that for a while.
My brother joined in '65 and he became an alcoholic, along with smoking
pot during Vietnam (and possibly other drugs), I'm sure..he's never spoken of those years. My uncle (retired from it) was the guy who introduced me to alcohol when I turned 18, (drinking age was lower then).
The military does wonders for your morale and esprit d'corps, doesn't it?
No wonder PTSD is such a prevalent thing.
But thank you for addressing the problem of addiction in the military. Civilians don't often understand the inner workings, and alcohol fuels a lot of the bad behavior..along with drugs.
Mary, I heard many stories like that one when I was a boy, mostly from my mother about other families suffering through similar situations from either direction, wife or husband. A then there were times I could see it with my own eyes -- my father telling me as a boy-bartender to cut off a colonel because he was groping other mens' wives. I used to take out the garbage at the apartment building we lived in at the Army War College-- colonels only there -- and see two cans completely filled with empty beer cans for one of the other apartments and the trash was picked up every other day.
When the movie "The Great Santini" was released, I must admit that it hit square home for me, and the old man. He was silent on the drive home, but he said, "I knew some people like that." And that was the only thing he ever did say.
I learned three skills while in the Army(1968-1970); how to smoke cigarettes, how to drink alcohol and how to use an m16 rifle. I became an expert at two of them.
So well put and so true. I'm currently writing a memoir about my alcoholism and am at present addressing my two years in the Army, including a year in Korea where drinking was endemic. This was in 1962-63, and heroin was already on the military scene: cheap smack sent from China.
The middle class, white collar alcohol fueled culture of the 1950s-1960s that some of us experienced as kids (the two-martini lunch era) has to some extent fallen by the wayside, but it has not been replaced by a healthier or more rational system. And abuse of ingested items that alter one's psyche--including sugar, I might add--is so entrenched in human culture that making any inroads in ameliorating it is impossible. Because humans need stuff that alters the reality of the moment, be it alcohol, chocolate, or other things. And this has been the norm since the Sumerians figured out how to turn grains into something far more interesting than bread.
I think the problem is the double standards applied in the USA about everything. For instance, I believe 18-year-olds who are members of the military are allowed to drink legally? At least on base? Although, with the height of cynical mendaciousness, as soon as they move into civilian spaces they turn into "children" again. Women who drink alcohol are victim blamed for anything that happens to them, but men who commit atrocities while under the influence are often given a lot of leeway on the basis that their "future" should not be "ruined" by "youthful misdeeds."
If the gun lobby can claim that the problem is the people who own the guns, then the manufacturers and purveyors of mind-altering substances (from distilleries to bakeries) are equally blameless. But of course, we all know that this claim is bulls**t. And also easier to pretend that a total lack of transparency, a refusal to educate, and a refusal to have appropriate clinical support (therapy, rehab, etc) readily available has no effect.
Even a non-veteran can recognize and salute your love for your former profession - and your despair at the ongoing endemic substance abuse problem. Thank you, sir.
It's a double whammy you're faced with, avoiding the worst effects of alcohol by limiting your consumption, and avoiding being stigmatized if companions are drinking, and you're not. You're navigating between the Scylla of the former and the Charybdis of the latter. Tough job threading the needle.
Although I was a decade behind you and at USNA down on the Severn, I remember those same stories. I grew up in the Navy, and I well remember all the wardroom parties where the liquor flowed freely and drinking to excess was part of the culture. I lost shipmates to drinking. My CO once was returned to the ship by the base police after being pulled over for driving drunk. Times were different, but times were the same. Oh when will they ever learn.
Thank you Lucian, excellent article. Sadly nothing will change because there will always be a need for escape from the stress. Military life will never be a gentle ride.
This is about the Ukraine conflict so off topic on this thread but I thought it worth sharing:
"Hiram Johnson (1866-1945) - a Progressive Republican senator in California. His actual quote, 'The first casualty, when war comes, is truth', was said during World War 1. He died on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima."
My parents had a few parties that I remember when we toured with Dad. Alcohol and cigarettes were plentiful. They quite smoking for the sake of my asthmatic lungs. The last liquor party I recall was about 1970. I don't think either of them were big drinkers. They still enjoy wine though. Mom more so than Dad. No liquor though.
My wife, older than me, has stories to tell about drinking during and after work at her place of employment when she was a junior employee. Then, headquarters was in Manhattan. I met her after her position was eliminated and she accepted an airport job like mine. I have never considered on-the-job drinking appropriate behavior, but then, in the early '70, she says it was not uncommon to see liquor bottles in management desk drawers and have alcohol with lunch on workdays.
Fentanyl is such a wild card, one would hope they'd take greater care -- but hell, as you pointed out, they're immortal, and it's a rare drug that even in moderation actually *improves* a person's judgment . . .
I used to serve martinis to Allen Dulles on the back porch of my grandparents' house in Northern Virginia when I was visiting them for the summer as a boy. Richard Helms, too, when he was grandpa’s deputy.
Old friend, You know I lived it with you. You presented more elegantly than I ever could, and I salute you. So sad, so true. Your prediction of the Army’s response is accurate. Bless you and thank you for all you have done and still do as the for the consummate professional you have always been.🪖👍
Alcohol, as we all know, is a depressant, a bliss-killer. It's not surprising that such a substance would be popular in a Judeo-Christian nation where bliss is seen as something to be avoided and especially in the military where bliss would be downright out of place. When I was in the Army at Ft. Bragg 1969,70,71 (XVIII Abn Corps) the resident division, the 82d Airborne was called "The Jumping Junkies". There was more heroin sold on Fort Bragg than in New York City at the time. Today's hard drugs don't allow a second chance.
That was extraordinary, the structured logic of the piece...I think I'm underpaying my subscription.
Oh, don't I know what you're talking about. Drinking was the thing to do. I remember that the end of my father's time was due to the fact that while he was away on a very important mission to Paris, my mother did not comport herself very well, and I had to get the neighbors to help me put things right.
Undoubtedly that got passed up the chain of command and within a year, my father had retired voluntarily at his own request. He once bitterly told me that had things been different, he would have made General..but for my mother.
He wasn't a saint, either, and I do believe that the culture of drinking in the Officer's Row (and quarters, and mess) made him and my mother alcoholics. It eventually shortened both of their lives.
So now it's another drug-which I hope and pray the Army takes more seriously than the drinking. They can't have drug addicts firing guns at the enemy.
I think personally that the military encourages drinking because if you sit down and actually assess what your mission is to be in the military, 'defending your country' often means killing other foreign people and losing your friends in battle.
Drinking makes you forget that for a while.
My brother joined in '65 and he became an alcoholic, along with smoking
pot during Vietnam (and possibly other drugs), I'm sure..he's never spoken of those years. My uncle (retired from it) was the guy who introduced me to alcohol when I turned 18, (drinking age was lower then).
The military does wonders for your morale and esprit d'corps, doesn't it?
No wonder PTSD is such a prevalent thing.
But thank you for addressing the problem of addiction in the military. Civilians don't often understand the inner workings, and alcohol fuels a lot of the bad behavior..along with drugs.
Mary, I heard many stories like that one when I was a boy, mostly from my mother about other families suffering through similar situations from either direction, wife or husband. A then there were times I could see it with my own eyes -- my father telling me as a boy-bartender to cut off a colonel because he was groping other mens' wives. I used to take out the garbage at the apartment building we lived in at the Army War College-- colonels only there -- and see two cans completely filled with empty beer cans for one of the other apartments and the trash was picked up every other day.
When the movie "The Great Santini" was released, I must admit that it hit square home for me, and the old man. He was silent on the drive home, but he said, "I knew some people like that." And that was the only thing he ever did say.
I learned three skills while in the Army(1968-1970); how to smoke cigarettes, how to drink alcohol and how to use an m16 rifle. I became an expert at two of them.
So well put and so true. I'm currently writing a memoir about my alcoholism and am at present addressing my two years in the Army, including a year in Korea where drinking was endemic. This was in 1962-63, and heroin was already on the military scene: cheap smack sent from China.
The middle class, white collar alcohol fueled culture of the 1950s-1960s that some of us experienced as kids (the two-martini lunch era) has to some extent fallen by the wayside, but it has not been replaced by a healthier or more rational system. And abuse of ingested items that alter one's psyche--including sugar, I might add--is so entrenched in human culture that making any inroads in ameliorating it is impossible. Because humans need stuff that alters the reality of the moment, be it alcohol, chocolate, or other things. And this has been the norm since the Sumerians figured out how to turn grains into something far more interesting than bread.
I think the problem is the double standards applied in the USA about everything. For instance, I believe 18-year-olds who are members of the military are allowed to drink legally? At least on base? Although, with the height of cynical mendaciousness, as soon as they move into civilian spaces they turn into "children" again. Women who drink alcohol are victim blamed for anything that happens to them, but men who commit atrocities while under the influence are often given a lot of leeway on the basis that their "future" should not be "ruined" by "youthful misdeeds."
If the gun lobby can claim that the problem is the people who own the guns, then the manufacturers and purveyors of mind-altering substances (from distilleries to bakeries) are equally blameless. But of course, we all know that this claim is bulls**t. And also easier to pretend that a total lack of transparency, a refusal to educate, and a refusal to have appropriate clinical support (therapy, rehab, etc) readily available has no effect.
A frank & honest report. Thanks. Easy does it.
Even a non-veteran can recognize and salute your love for your former profession - and your despair at the ongoing endemic substance abuse problem. Thank you, sir.
It's a double whammy you're faced with, avoiding the worst effects of alcohol by limiting your consumption, and avoiding being stigmatized if companions are drinking, and you're not. You're navigating between the Scylla of the former and the Charybdis of the latter. Tough job threading the needle.
Although I was a decade behind you and at USNA down on the Severn, I remember those same stories. I grew up in the Navy, and I well remember all the wardroom parties where the liquor flowed freely and drinking to excess was part of the culture. I lost shipmates to drinking. My CO once was returned to the ship by the base police after being pulled over for driving drunk. Times were different, but times were the same. Oh when will they ever learn.
Thank you Lucian, excellent article. Sadly nothing will change because there will always be a need for escape from the stress. Military life will never be a gentle ride.
This is about the Ukraine conflict so off topic on this thread but I thought it worth sharing:
"Hiram Johnson (1866-1945) - a Progressive Republican senator in California. His actual quote, 'The first casualty, when war comes, is truth', was said during World War 1. He died on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima."
My parents had a few parties that I remember when we toured with Dad. Alcohol and cigarettes were plentiful. They quite smoking for the sake of my asthmatic lungs. The last liquor party I recall was about 1970. I don't think either of them were big drinkers. They still enjoy wine though. Mom more so than Dad. No liquor though.
My wife, older than me, has stories to tell about drinking during and after work at her place of employment when she was a junior employee. Then, headquarters was in Manhattan. I met her after her position was eliminated and she accepted an airport job like mine. I have never considered on-the-job drinking appropriate behavior, but then, in the early '70, she says it was not uncommon to see liquor bottles in management desk drawers and have alcohol with lunch on workdays.
Do you think they should all be expelled?
No. If they kicked out everyone at West Point or in the army who abused alcohol and/or drugs, we wouldn't have an army or an academy.
I agree. But don’t you think they will be expelled?
no.
Hope you’re right
I’m sure it will just fade away.
Fentanyl is such a wild card, one would hope they'd take greater care -- but hell, as you pointed out, they're immortal, and it's a rare drug that even in moderation actually *improves* a person's judgment . . .
Not related to the topic -- but I saw this family reference today on Politico and felt I should share it here with the author and subscribers: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/13/presidents-ordered-assasinations-us-putin-00016568 -- eight paragraphs in!
I used to serve martinis to Allen Dulles on the back porch of my grandparents' house in Northern Virginia when I was visiting them for the summer as a boy. Richard Helms, too, when he was grandpa’s deputy.