drunk in charge of a pivot

I suppose that this has been a thing since foreign garrisons were a thing. But it seems to be one hell of a thing on Okinawa & points East generally:

The U.S. Department of Defense keeps alcohol plentiful and cheap on Asian bases, too. For example, a shoppette at Yokota Air Base was recently selling a 30-pack of Miller Lite beer for $12.99. By comparison, a six-pack of Budweiser would have cost the equivalent of about $15 at a nearby off-base Japanese supermarket.

Shoppettes also stock the super-cheap Military Special brand of spirits. A 1-liter bottle of Military Special tequila costs about $10 at Yokota’s shops.

It's amazing how you can maintain a forward military policy on the supposed premise of mutual respect, joint interest and general alliance and then funnel cheap rotgut to Our Boys: empire and capitalism in a one litre bucket. But I suppose that's as old as foreign garrisons, too. Also, credit to Stars and Stripes for running a Bad Behaviour in the Pacific page, I guess.

Comments

[john b]

Shorter: "Americans who leave their insane puritan homeland and go and live in more normal cultures tend to adopt their customs. This is evil and must be stopped."

[Seeds]

Not sure which of the previous comments made more sense

[Seeds]

Well, now my comment doesn't make much sense either. (There was previously some spam between john b's comment and mine.)

[BenSix]

Shorter: "Americans who leave their insane puritan homeland and go and live in more normal cultures tend to adopt their customs. This is evil and must be stopped."

Japan is more relaxed about debauchery than the United States? Surely you jest?

[john b]

'debauchery' a fairly meaningless term, but certainly more relaxed about drinking.

[Barry Freed]

'debauchery' a fairly meaningless term...

Not when you do it right.

[nick s]

More, "Shorter: we are shocked, shocked that large military encampments, especially in foreign countries, support a periphery built upon vices." Okinawa's notoriously bad, though.

You used to be able to drink on-base in the US before the age of 21, which was a boon for teenage army brats, but the MADD squeeze put an end to that. Now it's "18 or local laws, whichever is older". And john b's theory doesn't explain Aldershot.

[ajay]

john b's theory doesn't explain Aldershot.

What's to explain?

[CMcM]

I grew up in Aldershot (No, it's OK, really: the therapy has been v.helpful). I used to think the 'periphery built upon vices' had something to do with militarism.

But, naw, on mature reflection, it's just what young straight blokes tend to do when you put them together in large numbers for extended periods of time without the moderating influence of families, women, older people or kids.

In my experience this tends to be true whether they're at home or abroad or have or have not been trained to kill. Militarism only makes a difference in that it creates far larger groups of such young men compared to,say, the average Brit stag do in Tallin or Prague

[ajay]

I grew up in Aldershot

CMcM : John Betjeman :: Barry Freed : William Burroughs.

[dsquared]

yes it is not really as if civilian youth behave particularly differently around cheap alcohol. My data point is that the regular scraps between Bangor lads and soldiers (of whatever type, I dunno) who had just finished a week's walking around in the Snowdonian rain, were generally started by the locals as far as I could see.

[CMcM]

Ajay, I toyed with the idea that you were outing Barry as the love child of Miss Joan Hunter Dunn and William Burroughs but then decided I simply wasn't catching your cultural reference point(s).

[Barry Freed]

That would have been another Joan and an errant shot.

[Cian]

Americans who leave their insane puritan homeland.

This homeland being 1950s sitcom America?

I live near one of the largest domestic US military bases, and a medium sized college. I can't say I've really encountered drunk soldiers, but drunk college students are pretty hard to avoid in the center.