Spooky stuff

[2soon2tell]

Drugs were a huge problem in the Navy during the Vietnam years. So many GI's were returning from SE Asia with habits that you had to submit to a golden flow test before you could leave. When I left the Philippines a CPO had to watch me fill up the bottle. I was a LTjg and officers were not exempt from the test. This was in 1971.

I had a special TS security clearance and we were told that if were ever caught using drugs that our clearance would be immediately revoked, we would be court martialed and given a dishonorable discharge that would follow us the rest of our lives. Alcohol was the accepted drug of choice with $.25 drinks in the BOQ bar during happy hour.

Of course in courier school we were also told that the KGB probably had taken photographs of us and started a dossier just in case we could be blackmailed in the future. Don't know if that was true or not.

2soon

 

[Leonidas]

A bit of a delayed response, Leo, but the earthquake kinda interrupted me.

I'm glad that the Hawaiian earthquake god didn't swallow you up. Thanks for the great response, it was very enlightening.

Alcohol, of course, has been much more pervasive and continues to be a lifestyle problem.

Alcohol abuse was rampant, hence the first lesson taught in applied aerodynamics class was “Don’t fly within 12 hours of smoking and don’t drink within 50 feet of the aircraft.”

Alcohol was the accepted drug of choice with $.25 drinks in the BOQ bar during happy hour.

My own experiences mirror these. If we weren't in the field or afloat the end of each day was usually punctuated by two or three hours of mandatory PT, followed by the same question. "What do you want to do - work out or go get drunk to the club?" My answer was always "Let's do both." And then we would work out another couple of hours and then get blitzed before crashing and starting all over again at 0700. I got off active duty because there was no war to fight other than boredom, the Carter Administration was not proving to be a friend to the military, and I knew, that if I stayed in, I was either going to be Mr. Universe or an alcoholic - or both - before I was 25.

After I wrote that I remembered my first civilian job after getting out. I would run 4 miles to work each day, change clothes - do my job until lunch and then go down to the sandwhich shop to grab a bite for lunch and drink a couple of beers - then change clothes and run home another 4 miles. Two months or so into that found me drinking a beer at 11:30 a.m. and looking around at the other diners. I was the only guy with a beer, and the counterman had given me a strange look when I ordered. I suddenly realized that this was not how things are supposed to be in the real world. I'm glad I stopped when I did.