When my son, Michael, was five, he loved to play “soldier.” So when our neighbors, a retired Marine and his wife, invited him to go shopping with them at the local PX, he could barely contain his excitement, especially because they told him it was a place where “only soldiers could shop.”
I’m not sure what Michael was expecting, but apparently he envisioned shelves filled with guns, ammo and military equipment, because when he returned home, he was disappointed and upset.
“Michael, what’s the matter?” I asked.
“All that store had was beer and whiskey,” he complained. “They didn’t sell ANYTHING a soldier would want!”
I thought of Michael when I read that the Navy just banned the consumption of alcohol for 18,600 servicemen in Japan after several serious booze-fueled incidents have threatened our longstanding alliance with Japan.
In 1995, the US nearly got kicked off Okinawa after three U.S. servicemen were convicted of raping a schoolgirl. In March, another serviceman was arrested for raping a Japanese woman and in May, a former Marine working as a contractor at a US base on Okinawa, was arrested in connection with the disappearance of a woman who was later found dead. The latest incident a few days ago involved a drunk Naval petty officer who drove the wrong way on the freeway and crashed into two vehicles, injuring several people.
I don’t blame the governor and people of Okinawa for wanting the US Navy off the island. They should be angry, outraged and furious. Why should they care about international strategy and geopolitical interests when US soldiers and citizens keep committing heinous crimes?
I’m glad the Navy is taking it seriously. But for a minute I wondered how the rest of the 18,000 plus innocent soldiers feel about the drinking ban. I wondered if they felt they were being unfairly punished for the actions of a few bad apples?
So I consulted the Twittersphere, and if Twitter is any indication, the answer is yes. Some sailors are circulating some pretty salty tweets, complaining about the new no-booze, no-leave policy.
“Can’t have a life,” one person tweets.
“Being treated like children over here,” tweets another.
(By the way, those are not the salty ones.)
Boo hoo. Life’s unfair. Go complain to the families of the women who were raped and killed.
In the meantime, suck it up. Do your job. Be responsible.
I used to think that Michael was so cute when he said that the PX didn’t sell anything a soldier would want.
Now I think he was right.
***
photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/26847783422″>I Need a Drink</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>(license)</a>