Army Alcoholics, Alcoholism and Addicts of all sorts.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Most of my readers know that I write and post much about PTSD and its ramifications. The official position of the waffle-butt swivel chair Army brass is that PTSD is NOT caused by combat, but is caused by pre-enlistment psychological deficiencies such as alcohol or drug use, or a predilection for the use.

I have written previously that the Army in particular actually “trains its recruits” for alcohol and tobacco users and addicts. Basic training is so frustrating by the "brain washing" to become psychopathic killers that there is a ready made outlet to blow off steam, get drunk on beer and smoke as many cigarettes as necessary to cope with the prison and slave like atmosphere of basic training.

As I went through basic and advanced infantry training, I had to ask myself “Where did all of this horse crap with beer and tobacco come from?”

PTSD has been a product of Army battle combat at least since the Egyptian pharaoh’s time, only it seems to be getting worse. Alcohol as wine appeared in human history about 8,000 years ago. In Africa, elephants and chimpanzees discovered fermenting fruit a long time ago. A drunken elephant is a real bother!

Caesar’s army legions used wine, the common troops used wine in clay jugs. The elite officers used it in lead containers. Lead poisoning killed them.

Napoleon’s troops in Egypt used wine and brandy, they also discovered opium from the Arabs and thousands came home as addicts and spread it around.

The British army almost from its offset used French brandy and then rum as a daily ration once they captured Jamaica and Barbados, the first places where rum was commercially made from molasses. It was a daily army ration until about 1970.

Rum was introduced in north America soon after, and the first rum still was set up on Staten Island in New York in 1664. Rum became New England’s most profitable industry.

George Washington was one of the most prominent whiskey makers at the time. He recommended it for his soldiers based on his knowledge of its historical use by other armies.

The first U.S. president had a barrel of rum at his presidential inauguration in 1789. The American continental army used lots of rum, though it is not well documented.

We did have a whiskey rebellion in the U.S. about 1794 indicating wide use of distilled spirits.

The Civil War saw a great increase in alcohol and opium consumption for pain, etc. An estimated 500,000 veterans were addicted to opium.

The Spanish American war saw thousands of American soldiers in the Philippines where opium was widely used. Thousands of troops became addicted. We also had troops in Cuba, where they rediscovered rum as Cuba Libres, which are still popular today.

The next real war was WWI, with millions of Americans in France and Germany where beer and wine were safer to drink than water. They also discovered Cognac which for the American farm boys in uniform, was a real trip.

When they got home, prohibition stared them in the face (began in 1919). This brought a rise to 'speakeasies' and 'bathtub gin', which fortunately was stopped about 1933. By then, almost everybody in the U.S. was drinking 'booze'. WWII was just as exciting and liberating for America’s farm boys.

We had about 10 million or so troops from all over the world and their experience with PX beer taught them the best battle tranquilizer was alcohol in any form. Sadly, after the war alcoholism and tobacco killed far more than battle itself.

The Korean War was much the same as WWII, and alcohol and tobacco were still widely used.

The Vietnam War brought a real explosion in drug use. Many Americans had had some experience with marijuana but in Vietnam it was growing every place and was cheap as dirt. The Army and Marines did make beer available and whiskey was smuggled in at about fifty dollars a bottle, or more. Despite high ranking officers’ denial, marijuana sometimes with opium or heroin was very widely used, but not in battle.

When the infantry was not in battle they used it. They also discovered amphetamines, heroin, Ketamine, Diamorph, Meperidine, Methadone. They used all this other stuff in preference to the morphine like drugs and anti depressant drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and many more which just made the troops stupid.

After Vietnam, wars in the middle east brought on the much wider medical use of anti-depressant type drugs which have been widely and thoroughly rejected by the PTSD patients who now are being castigated for being alcoholics or drug (marijuana) users.

Oh, before I forget, the non-com clubs in the army have always been a beer drinkers paradise and the officers’ club off limit to the troops except as bar tenders, supply a far greater number of alcoholics. As a matter of fact , they are the only ones that can afford to be drunkards. The enlisted man's pay usually won’t permit it.

More information on the history of Dr. Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of WWII about his own experiences "from a foxhole".
Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier

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