Military smoking ban on the way

A lot of talk about a smoking ban across all branches of U.S. Military, since release of Pentagon study this week. No smoking will be permitting in the ranks, and that includes cigarettes, cigars, pipes (smokeless tobacco too). Ironic that Gay rights are coming to the forefront for protection while cigar smokers will be reprimanded (or booted out?). I'm not comparing the two activities by any means, only pointing out the contradiction that in a supposedly free country, a soldier who does his job should at least enjoy the same freedoms he's sworn to protect!

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alienmisprint

Where did you see this? I haven't heard anything about a smoking ban.....I'm not sure exactly what I would do if they did implement that.........

havanaal

Multiple sites have reported this. Here's one: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/11/smoking-ban-strike-military/

phobicsquirrel

Well I guess this was going to come sometime. I think as a soldier since you belong to the govt anyway, they can do what they want. Also they pay for healthcare and I do know that smoking causes a lot of issues with soldiers. So would this be while on duty or even off base and the likes?

Vince O

good thing I am done with the Navy , had they had a smoking ban when I was in I would have never Enlisted ... there was no better way to relax after a hard days work but to pull up a paint can on the fantail & spark up a fine havana or domestic , in a pinch a great pipe of borkum riff or some other tasty pipe tobacco, a cup of NAVY COFFEE & maybe a splash of madicinal single malt that was snuck on board ...... land of the free as long as you agree with the ( Insert your own adjative here) weenies in chage , I think its time to get the political weenies introduced to the writings of Jefferson, Madison , Thomas Paine & all the rest of the Founding Fathers , time for the NANNY STATE to take a Break & check the reality on the horizon. Enjoy, Vince

rdnstn

This won't fly. I'm in the Army medical field and they even tried making Ft. Sam Houston (home of the Army medical dept.) a non smoking post on more than one occasion and have always failed. The closest they have ever come is to ban smoking for initial entry trainees and that is only effective on post. As soon as they get an off post pass, it's over. Shoot, they can't even enforce something like anthrax immunizations. They will never be able to enforce this.

havanaal

The fact that this is ill advised, unenforceable, or unpopular in the ranks is irrelevant. I will give you a personal example. I apologize for the length, but I can't make it shorter. I own a piece of a property management company, with a mission among other things to lease up commercial property. These days, I can tell you that prospective tenants are 2-1 in favor of smoking properties, as opposed to properties with smoking bans. The reasons are all well known: Nonsmoking properties all have an ugly demarcation line of cigarette butts on the ground. Nonsmoking properties force employees beyond the boundaries, creating longer breaks, and more liability. The clients who sign the leases are generally entrepreneurial "Republican" types who put their money where their mouth is when it comes to personal liberty. Smoking properties are more employee friendly, period. Even with these factors in their faces, our Board submits motions to ban smoking on our properties on a regular basis. One partner has a wife who's asthmatic (irrelevant). One partner is a flaming liberal Democrat (enough said), One partner thinks it's good PR to be smoke free. The others vote with me, but it's always close. The day may come soon when I can't light up a cigar on my own property! So you see, no logical arguments will convince me that the military isn't prepared to move toward a ban.

Jetmech_63

Sheeeit! Just try and enforce this. Make a ship smoke free and there will be riots....i'm not even kidding! Hell 1/2 the carrier skippers i've known are cigar smokers! I cant imagine chiefs that smoke going without cigarettes....hell might as well take our coffee away too...mutiny....straight mutiny

kuzi16

Jetmech_63:
....hell might as well take our coffee away too...

dont give em any ideas.

gmill880

kuzi16:
Jetmech_63:
....hell might as well take our coffee away too...
dont give em any ideas.

They have not took our coffey at work away yet but they did tell us we have to bring our own cups from home ...not buying anymore styrofoam cups ...cutting expenses ...hhmmmm

Lasabar

Well,that does it... Now I'm not joining the military... No Smoking= No Nate

(or maybe I'm not joining because I love food, cigars, scotch and beer a little too much and the scale is creeping upwards)

zoom6zoom

Richmond, CA just passed a ban on smoking in apartments and condos, since smoke can go between the living units. Gee, that wouldn't happen if they were built properly. Nose in the tent, folks.

havanaal

Let me get this straight. If I own an apartment building in Richmond, and I inform tenants that smoking is permitted, and they say "Great" and they decide to light up, they'll be fined. And if I walk into a building that I own, hang out in one of the apartments and enjoy a cigar, I'll be fined. And if I advertise "smoking allowed" I am forbidden from letting tenants who willingly live in my building from smoking on private property THAT I OWN??? Since when did Virginia become a totalitarian state? Where is the Supreme Court in this?

havanaal

Sorry, I guess it's California, not Virginia. That figures.

laker1963

Hells bells boys. Up here we all have been thinkin' for years that we in Canada would one day become a part of the US. Now however it looks like you boy's may becoming more a part of Canada!!! LMAO. You bunch of pinko commies! LMFAO
YOU'LL NEVER GET USED TO ALL THESE TAX'S AND PERSONALLY INTERFERRING LEGISLATION.

clearlysuspect

Lasabar:
Well,that does it... Now I'm not joining the military... No Smoking= No Nate

(or maybe I'm not joining because I love food, cigars, scotch and beer a little too much and the scale is creeping upwards)

LOL. Hell these are all perfect reasons to join the military. I didn't really get introduced to any of these things until I joined the Navy. On the topic at hand, I work at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. No way this will ever happen. And even if it did happen it would be as irrelevent as the military telling soldiers they can't wear flip flops at home or have sex in other-than-missionary position. What did you get kicked out for, OTH? ("Other Than Honorable" for you non-military type) No, I got kicked out for OTM! What's that? Other Than Missionary!

4bob4

havanaal:
Sorry, I guess it's California, not Virginia. That figures.

Was about to say the same thing to you. Hahaa.

forgetfulrobot

This is complete BS it will never go through and I'm really not worried about. Although my soul is owned by the government. Ron I don't know about that not being able to enforce the anthrax shot stuff I was told it was mandatory now and I had no choice in taking the shot that has so little long term research done. Can't wait to do my part in the research though when 30 years from now we find out!

clearlysuspect

forgetfulrobot:
This is complete BS it will never go through and I'm really not worried about. Although my soul is owned by the government. Ron I don't know about that not being able to enforce the anthrax shot stuff I was told it was mandatory now and I had no choice in taking the shot that has so little long term research done. Can't wait to do my part in the research though when 30 years from now we find out!

When I was on the Truman back in 2003, it was certainly manditory. We had 3 days to get our butts to medical and get it done and those who didn't were standing in front of the skipper on the 4th day. Same deal with the smallpox vaccination.

forgetfulrobot

Well when it first came out it was mandatory but then very high ranking personel refused to take it due to the lack of research after Gulf War Vets had a common illness that pointed to the vaccine. The military being the military came up with some "research" and its back to mandatory. Testing this vaccine along with who knows how many other drugs is nothing new to the military. Some are tested on volunteers others never know. Heres an interesting article if you wanted to read a little more into it. http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/AnthraxGWS.htm

Jetmech_63

forgetfulrobot:
Well when it first came out it was mandatory but then very high ranking personel refused to take it due to the lack of research after Gulf War Vets had a common illness that pointed to the vaccine. The military being the military came up with some "research" and its back to mandatory. Testing this vaccine along with who knows how many other drugs is nothing new to the military. Some are tested on volunteers others never know. Heres an interesting article if you wanted to read a little more into it. http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/AnthraxGWS.htm

Funny you should mention that, i just got my annual booster today. The inital vaccination is like a 7 shot series, i think today was like my 11th.

forgetfulrobot

Jetmech_63:
forgetfulrobot:
Well when it first came out it was mandatory but then very high ranking personel refused to take it due to the lack of research after Gulf War Vets had a common illness that pointed to the vaccine. The military being the military came up with some "research" and its back to mandatory. Testing this vaccine along with who knows how many other drugs is nothing new to the military. Some are tested on volunteers others never know. Heres an interesting article if you wanted to read a little more into it. http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/AnthraxGWS.htm

Funny you should mention that, i just got my annual booster today. The inital vaccination is like a 7 shot series, i think today was like my 11th.

Funny how that works huh? Before this deployment I'm on now started we were given a ton of booster shots and vaccinations. One of the times I was told I was taking 5 shots that day. Fine whatever I'm covered in tattoos, needles don't bother me but I did want to know what they were. I was told 3 out of the 5. When I asked what the other two were I got a response of "Turn and face the wall" I responded "I've never heard of that vaccine but I hope it doesn't carry any long term side effects." They didn't find it as humorous and stuck me before I could inquire what they really were.

zoom6zoom

Link to the Richmond CALIFORNIA story: http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/2020330.html

"because the government knows what's best for you".

phobicsquirrel

Jetmech_63:
forgetfulrobot:
Well when it first came out it was mandatory but then very high ranking personel refused to take it due to the lack of research after Gulf War Vets had a common illness that pointed to the vaccine. The military being the military came up with some "research" and its back to mandatory. Testing this vaccine along with who knows how many other drugs is nothing new to the military. Some are tested on volunteers others never know. Heres an interesting article if you wanted to read a little more into it. http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/AnthraxGWS.htm

Funny you should mention that, i just got my annual booster today. The inital vaccination is like a 7 shot series, i think today was like my 11th.

damn, When I was in, my unit never had any to give. I was always happy about that.

rdnstn

forgetfulrobot:
This is complete BS it will never go through and I'm really not worried about. Although my soul is owned by the government. Ron I don't know about that not being able to enforce the anthrax shot stuff I was told it was mandatory now and I had no choice in taking the shot that has so little long term research done. Can't wait to do my part in the research though when 30 years from now we find out!

Technically it is mandatory but only if you are deploying. There have been people that raised enough of a stink about it and they never got it and really never saw any punishment for it so it was kind of setting a precedence. As far as long term studies, what you said really isn't true. As far as the military goes, you are right but veterinarians, ranchers and the like have been getting the same anthrax vaccination since the '60s, maybe even the '50s.

Thewelder

I have to completely agree with Jet. I was on the Eisenhower CVN69 you would have mutiny, that and the fact you have 1/4 the ship being engineers who know all kinds of pump rooms and shaft allys that are perfect for smoking. I won't say never becasue its a long time but it will be damn close

cholmes8310

gmill880:
kuzi16:
Jetmech_63:
....hell might as well take our coffee away too...
dont give em any ideas.

They have not took our coffey at work away yet but they did tell us we have to bring our own cups from home ...not buying anymore styrofoam cups ...cutting expenses ...hhmmmm

Our office cut coffee. Said they wouldn't provide it, then told us we couldn't bring our own pots... that lasted two days. Everyone pitched a ***, and the terminal manager reinstated it. said he would find another way to cut costs that didn't involve so much headache for him. They just put a limit on it. Coffee could be made from 8-12, after that, no coffee. they put a lock on the cabinet.

kuzi16

i heard this morning that the military said that this is a no go. no ban

...for now.

gcv

I dug up this old post while searching for the topic I need help with. Ironically, not only was the no smoking ban reversed, there are "cigars for soldiers" programs that are like therapy.

My friend is deployed and smokes cigars; I want to send him a sampler of about 10 cigars. I know nothing about cigars or his preferences. He is on a US base in the United Arab Emirates; I don't know what conditions the cigars need to be kept in or how they will do being shipped.

I would like to spend about $50 including shipping and was thinking about getting one of those cool humidors that are plastic and water tight and putting the cigars in there, but then I thought maybe I should skip the cool box and put the money into the cigars.

I was also debating having them shipped directly from the internet cigar retailer (much easier and my preference) but I figure the odds of a box with "cigars" on it actually arriving intact to a base ( much less a specific person) in the Middle East are slim.

Thanks for your advice.

Gina

firetruckguy

gcv:
I dug up this old post while searching for the topic I need help with. Ironically, not only was the no smoking ban reversed, there are "cigars for soldiers" programs that are like therapy. My friend is deployed and smokes cigars; I want to send him a sampler of about 10 cigars. I know nothing about cigars or his preferences. He is on a US base in the United Arab Emirates; I don't know what conditions the cigars need to be kept in or how they will do being shipped. I would like to spend about $50 including shipping and was thinking about getting one of those cool humidors that are plastic and water tight and putting the cigars in there, but then I thought maybe I should skip the cool box and put the money into the cigars. I was also debating having them shipped directly from the internet cigar retailer (much easier and my preference) but I figure the odds of a box with "cigars" on it actually arriving intact to a base ( much less a specific person) in the Middle East are slim. Thanks for your advice. Gina

Hi Gina, sounds like a great idea sending him some sticks. Call CCOM Monday and ask for Tim, tell him you want to send your friend some sticks in a herf-a-dor and he will hook you up. If you cant get it done, PM me and Ill help with everything. Tell your friend thanks for his service.

Rhamlin

You can almost picture it now. You'll have to go to special places where you'll have to speak easy to get let into a place where you can smoke. And the term cigarette boat will take on a new meaning.