Brent Ervin

Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman

English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

Note to Reader: I focused on introducing and providing follow up commentary to quotes. I
also added my inquiry question to provide clarity as to what I want to talk about in the paper.
Im satisfied with the tone of my paper and content. Im not sure at this point what, if
anything, I would further revise.
Ill never forget my freshman year at the University of Nebraska when I had my first
drink of alcohol. It was a Budweiser. I recall thinking it was disgusting but everybody
promised me it would get better so I continued. After my third, I was slurring my words and
fell back in a chair and hit my head on a wall that briefly stopped the party. I immediately
got up and continued my conversation which caused everybody to break out in laughter.
Are you alright?! several people asked and I had no idea why. Apparently the noise of my
head hitting the wall sounded as if I shouldve been concussed but I had no clue because I
felt nothing. A series of epic tales involving alcohol would ensue, ruining all hopes I had of
playing basketball for the University. After my dismissal from college my mom quickly
drove across the country from Charlotte, North Carolina to Lincoln, Nebraska to retrieve me
and bring me back. All was not lost however, because I quickly received scholarship offers
to play basketball in North Carolina. I had had enough of college, after my previous run so
the next step was the military. I met my soon to be wife at 21 and joined the Air Force at 22
bringing her along with me. What I thought would be a chance to leave alcohol alone and
get a little more structure and discipline in my life didnt quite turn out to be the case.
Twelve years later, I wonder what is the significance of the culture around alcohol and
drinking in the U.S. Military?

Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

My first base I was assigned to was in Great Falls, Montana. You can imagine the
culture shock I had going from relatively big city living to mountains, horses, and one stoplight
towns. Another thing they had plenty of was alcohol. You could buy it at a cheaper price than
anywhere off base and considering there wasnt much off base that is usually what your nights
were spent doing. I was security forces at the time (military police) and our schedule consisted
of being gone away from home (in the field) returning on the fifth day, followed by two and half
days off, two training days then back out. My coworkers and I were together all the time on and
off duty and the motto I quickly learned was work hard, play hard. With limited options
available off base we usually drank and played video games or found one ran down club in
town to go to which usually involved drinking and fights. Being in isolation for extended
periods of time and boredom are not lost on people serving in the Navy who are stuck on a boat
for relatively long periods of time. In a study titled Military Culture and Drinking Behavior
Among U.S. Navy Careerist, a young female sailor spoke to this stating: Underway, while
youre on a cruise, youre hitting ports that all there really is to do is drink. I mean, you can find
other things to do, but when youre out to sea for 30, 40 days, you really just want to get of the
ship and have a beer. Even people that dont normally drink are gonna be out there and may not
know their limits. (Ames, Cunradi, Moore, Stern, 7) I dont see anything wrong with that. The
only thing is most wont keep it to just a beer. It appeared to me that everyone drank. I recall
being at an official military function and the chaplain, which is a military pastor, priest, reverend,
etc., started drinking from the keg our leadership provided. This blew me away because how I
was raised, I thought no member of the clergy drank. I ultimately chocked it up to my lack of
knowledge of other denominations rules. We were all far away from home, overworked and
Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

bored. Drink! At my going away party our boss showed up and brought me a case of beer and
had a few himself before getting in his car and driving home. The next day, while still drunk, I
gave an epic going away speech which involved me roasting multiple members of my flight
(about 30 people) to which my leadership begged me to keep going. That was the environment,
the job, and it was great.
My next move landed me in England. England was great; however, the horrible work
schedule didnt allow me to see much of it but again, the same work hard, play hard mentality
applied here just as it did in Montana. It was here were I began to move up the ranks and started
to see the implications of misusing alcohol. It is customary for an individual that is getting
promoted to a higher rank to have a promotion party held in his/her honor. That individual
proceeds to buy drinks for everyone because naturally with the new rank youll be acquiring new
wealth. Typically, all coworkers from boss to peers to subordinates will show up to show their
support for your success. However, make the wrong decision, better yet, get caught making the
wrong decision and watch that support flee rapidly. I recall one of those very promotion parties
taking place and the honoree left the function and proceeds to get a DUI on base. The new rank
he was to acquire was taken and he was demoted two ranks back from his current and forfeited
hundreds of dollars in pay. The contradictory nature of essentially promoting drinking at official
functions and traditions then subsequently severely punishing someone that has an infraction
upon leaving that function, never left me. I went on to see it happen in at least a dozen cases for
the rest of my time in the military. The thing about it is that the punishment doled out was
dictated on how well liked you were within that organization. There wasnt a standard
punishment given to all violators. This was also noted by a female lieutenant in the Navy that
Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

was asked Is there a standardized alcohol policy, and if so, is it enforced?: No, and its
different for everyone, because if its a one-time occurrence, you say, Hey, dont let it happen
again. If it happens on a continual basis, thats where you have to start documenting it, but it
depends upon the leniency of the chain of command (Ames, Cunradi, Moore, Stern, 6). In
England I also saw people finding significantly cheaper rent in off base homes/apartments if they
bought their British landlord liquor. In every place in the world where there is military
base/installation the alcohol will be priced significantly cheaper than anywhere off. The actual
discount percentage is set by Department of Defense Instruction which states in part that alcohol
will be: no more than 10 percent less than the best local shelf price in Alcohol Beverage Control
(ABC) States and 5 percent less than the best local shelf price in non-ABC States. (Chu 5) The
number is 10 percent for places overseas. (Chu 5) That is a perk afforded to those for serving in
or working for the military. That is also the appeal of it and what allows most people to get drunk
without breaking the bank in the process.
While in England I was sent on my first deployment to Afghanistan and it was definitely
tense to say the least. While on deployments to the Middle East you are required to abstain from
alcohol because we dont want to offend members of the Islamic faith while occupying their
country and punishments for violators range from reduction in rank (demotion) to being
discharged from the military. This is expressed through a military document called General
Order Number 1. General Order #1 states many things one of which is: This Order prohibits
the actual or attempted importation, introduction, exportation, possession, purchase, sale, resale,
distribution, transfer, manufacture, or consumption of any alcoholic beverage or alcohol-
containing substance within the countries of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and
Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

Iraq (Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central) I then went on to get stationed in Georgia
where I deployed twice to Iraq among other places. It was in Iraq that I was schooled to the fact
that there is just about always a way to circumvent rules/laws. I had a friend who worked in
supply, which basically held all types of goods. He would then just really barter with members
of coalition forces who apparently werent under as strict of rules as we were for alcohol in
exchange for whatever they wanted that he had. People would also have family members pour
out mouthwash and put alcohol in its place and have it sent over to them. This was all done to
combat work related stress. Working twelve hour shifts, seven days a week for six months or
more takes its toll on you. Add in seeing combat action and you bet people are coming back to
their tents or whatever they are sleeping in and looking to pour something strong in a cup.
Earlier, upon returning from my first deployment in Afghanistan to few years later
coming back from Iraq, the Air Force and military in general started focusing more on different
programs and reintegration was apart of that. Reintegration is the stage of the deployment
cycle (pre-deployment, deployment, post-deployment or reintegration) characterized by the
service members reentry into his or her daily life as experienced prior to deployment, or into a
new civilian life, including the domains of work, family, and personal experiences. (Marek,
Hollingsworth, DAniello, ORourke, Brock, Moore, Butler VI, and Zhang) During this time
members are encouraged to ease back into normal activities and if having a drink was one of
those activities then ease back into that too. My experiences were that nobody paid any attention
to that. When we were on our way back everybody couldnt wait until we landed in Qatar where
they had a three drink per day policy. They controlled this by assigning a card to you they would
stamp each time you had a drink. Naturally, this could be circumvented by having your friends
Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

that dont drink buy drinks for you using their card and yes this resulted in immediate
intoxication, but hey work hard, play hard right?! Getting back to the states there were all sorts
of programs that the Air Force had in place, like the 0-0-1-3 Drink responsibly program.
What does 0-0-1-3- mean? The "first and second zeros" restate the law of zero underage alcohol
use and zero driving while under the influence, or impaired by alcohol. The "one" indicates one
drink per hour (one 12-ounce beer, four to five percent alcohol, or 1.5 ounce shot of 80-proof
alcohol, or one five-ounce glass of wine at 11 percent alcohol). The "three" stands for no more
than three drinks per evening of alcohol use. (McClendon) This is a great policy in theory but
you would rarely see it in practice. That being said, I think the effort was there to try and put a
stop to what was deemed a problem for troops returning from deployment and in general but
perhaps the damage had been done for career airmen (those that reenlisted more than twice). I
think the focus on new personnel entering would be a better target and have better results. This
turned out to be the case at one base in San Antonio, Texas, where they wanted to combat
Alcohol Related Incidents in technical training schools. Cindy McClendon, who writes for
Goodfellow Air Force Bases official website, states the definition of an ARI as: (1) driving
under the influence, incidents, and accidents; (2) underage drinking; (3) accidental injuries or
death as the result of drinking (e.g., intoxicated and hurting oneself); (4) crimes against people
when drinking (e.g., sexual assault, spouse/child abuse); and (5) crimes against property while
drinking (e.g., intoxicated and damaging the neighbors property). (McClendon) In tech
school, as we call it, the main problem was underage drinking and those that were busted for it
would find themselves out of the military just as quick as they were in. The test program
involved giving a Brief Alcohol Intervention (BAI)(short briefing about the dangers of alcohol)
Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

to the masses then conducting random alcohol Breathalyzers to underage airmen on weekends
when they returned after being allowed to go leave the dorms. The test resulted in 19 fewer
airmen getting kick out and $684K saved in training costs to replace them. (Klesges) In the eyes
of the Air Force this test program was a huge success. Its great that they identified that there
was a problem, but a one year trial doesnt seem to be doing enough. Perhaps the damage is
done for service members prior to this trial, however, maybe going forward it will change the
culture.
I always wondered if this culture of drinking was specific to those of us in the Air Force
or was it happening in other branches. According to a study titled: Alcohol Use and Preventing
Alcohol-Related Problems Among Young Adults in the Military, which basically compared
heavy alcohol use among young (18-24 years old) service members in all four branches as well
as civilians in the same age range, it appears that no branch is exempt. For the males: Marines
Corps 38.6%; Air Force 24.5%, Army: 32.8%, Navy: 31.8%. (Ames, Cunradi) For females the
numbers are lower at: Marine Corps 12.9%, Navy 11.5%, Air Force and Army 6.3%. (Ames,
Cunradi) In addition, more than half (53.8 percent) of all young military personnel reported at
least one episode of binge drinking (defined here as having consumed five or more drinks on the
same occasion at least once in the past 30 days) (Ames, Cunradi) Judging from those numbers,
at a minimum, no less than 1in 4 of the males in any branch of service reported heavy alcohol
use. Thats significant. Building on my curiosity, I thought, what if I had stayed in college.
Would I have had the same drinking habits? As I mentioned, in the same study they compared
these rates of military personnel with civilians of the same age enrolled in college and not
enrolled. The study said: Of the young men in all branches of the military, 32.2 percent
Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

engaged in heavy drinking, compared with 17.8 percent of civilian men. Women serving in the
Navy and the Marine Corps had significantly higher rates (11.5 percent and 12.9 percent,
respectively) than civilian women (5.5 percent); rates among women in the Army and Air Force
(6.3 percent in each) did not differ significantly from those of their civilian counterparts.
(Ames, Cunradi) If you look at the branches as jocks and geeks, the Air Force would be the
only true geeks with the Navy getting an honorable mention. Stereotyping, jocks are athletic, not
very intelligent, and love to party; geeks are the opposite. This is how its viewed within the
culture as well which is why I dont find these numbers very surprising as far as which branches
have the highest rates of heavy alcohol use.
At the end of the day, I learned a lot, saw a lot, and drank a lot during my twelve years in
the military. I definitely think that alcohol plays a significant role in the military culture through
official ceremonies or as a means to cope with different variables such as stress, boredom, and
loneliness. I cant say that those individuals that are abusing alcohol didnt join with those
behaviors previously established. The military has also implemented policies to combat the
problem regardless of fault; they recognize it is a problem. Ultimately, the onus is on the
individual to decide if they want to be consumed by the culture or not because when it comes to
rendering punishment for infractions the military is never at fault.




Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

WORKS CITED:
Ames, Genevieve, and Carol Cunradi. " Alcohol Use and Preventing Alcohol-Related Problems
Among Young Adults in the Military ." NIAAA Publications. N.p.. Web. 7 Apr 2014.
<http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh284/252-257.htm>.
Ames, Genevieve M. et al. Military Culture and Drinking Behavior Among U.S. Navy
Careerists. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 68.3 (2007): 336. Print.
Chu, David. United States Government. Department of Defense. DoD Instruction 1330.9. 2005.
Print.
"Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central/ U.S. 5th Fleet." Commander, U.S. Naval
Forces Central/ U.S. 5th Fleet. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
Klesges, Robert C.Talcott, WayneEbbert, Jon O.Murphy, James G.McDevitt-Murphy,
Meghan E.Thomas, FridtjofReese, Gregory J.Nicholas, Rena A. Effect of the Alcohol
Misconduct Prevention Program (AMPP) in Air Force Technical Training. Military
Medicine 178.4 (2013): 445451. EBSCOhost. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
Marek, Lydia, W. Glenn Hollingsworth, Carissa DAniello, Kathleen ORourke, Donna-Jean
Brock, Lyn Moore, John Butler VI, and Jing Zhang. "Returning home: What we know
about the reintegration of deployed service members into their families and communities |
NCFR." Returning home: What we know about the reintegration of deployed service
members into their families and communities | NCFR. N.p.. Web. 7 Apr 2014.
Brent Ervin
Ms. Hofmann Tales of A Drunk Airman
English 1102-Sec-044
April 9, 2014

McClendon, Cindy. " 0-0-1-3 "Drink Responsibly" Program." goodfellow.af.mil. Goodfellow Air
Force Base, 18 Dec 2012. Web. 7 Apr 2014.
<http://www.goodfellow.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123330353>.
Whiteman, Shawn D, and Adam E Barry. A Comparative Analysis of Student Service
Member/Veteran and Civilian Student Drinking Motives. Journal of Student Affairs
Research and Practice 48.3 (2011): 297313. Print.