Some outside the military fail to comprehend the US military’s ability to govern the “private lives” of those in its service.  What happens outside the gate, or out of uniform, is beyond the military’s purview, they think. 

They’re wrong.

While this misunderstanding of military control has become increasingly evident in recent months regarding sexual conduct, it has been raised about other issues as well.

Ramstein Air Base in Germany recently restricted all personnel to base or their homes in response to increases in perceived threats.  Many civilians disconnected from the military can’t understand why a military leader would be able to restrict a 38 year-old father of four with 16 years of military service to his home in a city in Germany.  (Often, they might not understand why that same military member would obey.)

Just last week the Air Force reportedly imposed a curfew and alcohol restriction on all Airmen on Okinawa.  They were prohibited from drinking alcohol outside their homes (base facilities stopped serving alcohol), and they were restricted to the base or their off-base homes from 11pm to 5am.

In essence, the General in charge ‘grounded’ every single Airman to enable a “period of reflection,” to which he referred when he lifted the restriction a few days later:

“I appreciate everyone who took advantage of this time to consider the standards we are expected to live by, and the impact that failure to meet those standards can have on our ability to conduct military operations here on Okinawa,” [BrigGen Kenneth Wilsbach] said on [his] Facebook page.

The restriction did not apply to Marines, Soldiers, or civilians serving alongside the Airmen.

Unfortunately, military leaders are often faced with challenges in controlling “group” behavior — since rarely does an individual use bad judgment completely on his own.  In this case, there had apparently been 11 DUI/DWIs in just a month.  The Air Force has tried to encourage a “wingman” environment, much like the Army’s “battle buddy,” in which poor choices are mitigated by another’s wise intervention. In this case, the leadership may have wondered why the friends of those who drove drunk didn’t take their keys.

Comments on the Stars and Stripes articles were predictably caustic, and one even highlighted a common complaint with regard to the treatment of pilots in situations like this:

I would lay odds that the squadrons ops never stopped serving booze to the pilots or maintenance officers.

While there’s nothing to suggest the commenter was correct, it is true that many fighter squadrons have their own bars (as noted in the fighter pilot traditions here).  Restrictions on alcohol may, or may not, apply to those unit areas, depending on leadership’s direction.

The critical responses were likely the result of the restrictions on ‘liberties.’  In addition, the perception that a group is being punished for the ‘crimes’ of a few (or an individual) often grates, even in the military.  It brings to mind the time-honored (and highly inappropriate) saying often voiced in large institutions:

One guy [craps] his pants, everybody wears a diaper.