13 March 2007

General Order Number One



GENERAL ORDER NUMBER ONE:
Purpose: to identify conduct that is prejudicial to good order and discipline while deployed to the Iraqi theater of operations.
This general order is applicable to all military members and civilians serving with, employed by or accompanying the division…
Prohibited Activities: the possession, sale, transfer, manufacture or consumption of any alcoholic beverage... the possession, transfer, sale, creation or display of any pornographic or sexually explicit material... gambling of any kind... the adopting as pets or mascots any type of domestic or wild animal....

--excerpted from First Infantry Division

The Army is not a fun institution. In fact, it is the anti-matter to a good time. The first thing that was done in the current unpleasantness was to ensure that no fun of any sort was going to happen on the off-chance that someone would be offended.

I suppose it had the additional benefit of providing an additional measure of control over heavily armed 19-year-olds, and I can certainly understand it.

The Fleet Commander used to sigh when the Monday morning meeting got around to the JAG officer, who would read the litany of the idiocy that had occurred in Tijuana over the weekend. It was predictable and stupid mayhem. Sailors and Marines would cross the border and either incite trouble, or be victimized by the predators along the Avenida Revolucion.

“Nothing good happens after midnight,” the Admiral would say, and he would know. He started out as an Aviation Bos'uns mate, and knew whereof he spoke.

I am not opposed to General Order Number One on principle. Generally speaking, I am in favor of what we used to call “Good order and discipline,” a concept for which I increasingly became responsible as the years went by.

I came from a rock n' roll tradition in the military, a component of which was an attitude left over from the sour taste of war in southeast Asia. A version of the phrase “What are you going to do to me, put me on an aircraft carrier and send me to Vietnam?” was suitable for virtually any occasion, even if the war was long over.

The Navy has had a version of General Order Number One for nearly a century. Rum was taken from the sailors in the Civil War, though the officers in the Wardroom were permitted to have their own Wine Mess.

The injustice offended the fiery Democratic newspaperman from North Carolina who helped to secure the election of Woodrow Wilson as President against the fractured Republicans in 1912.

Joesphus Daniels was appointed Secretary of he Navy for his efforts, and he found a bully pulpit for social experiments that fitted his stern worldview He was a strict moralizer and a prohibitionist, and he became increasingly convinced that most disciplinary problems in the naval services resulted from excessive consumption of alcohol.

The consumption of alcohol on board U.S. Navy vessels was prohibited by his General Order 99, effective 1 July 1914.

It is said that the term “cup of Joe,” came from the Secretary's first name, referring to coffee. It was the only stimulating beverage left on the ships or shore installations around the world.

Naturally, prohibition has its own consequences. It did not work in the larger society, and frankly didn't work in the military either. The great experiment waxes and wanes over time. On my first ship, the attack squadron had a refrigerator well-stocked with Budweiser. Even the design of the little safe in the officer's wall-lockers was said to be designed to precisely fit the dimension of a square bottle of Scotch.

Vietnam brought contempt for arbitrary rules, and illicit alcohol was one of the consequences. The operations officer in one of the squadrons on Midway had cut his teeth on Yankee Station, and would often growl that “If the Navy was going to insist on his landing on the carrier at night, he was going to insist on a glass of Scotch when he got back.”

It took decades to eliminate the ubiquitous presence of alcohol in the Fleet, at least on the carriers, but was done through a rigorous policy of de-glamorization and scrupulous application of the General Order.

The paper this morning is saying that violations of General Order Number One are causing problems in Iraq. I am not sure that is what the problem is. A friend recently concluded a tour at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, where the General Order is also in effect.

He said that the Army leadership there was more concerned with enforcing the parking restrictions on base than engaging the Taliban. Some of the troops were convinced that the high-tech imaging systems intended for perimeter defense were used to conduct surveillance of the Conex-containers where the troops were billeted.

It was a way of ensuring that spontaneous outbursts of fun did not occur. Somewhere Josephus Daniels must be rolling around in his tomb. All the comparisons of the current war to Vietnam are not valid. But with standards for enlistment declining, and the constant stress, you can almost hear a heavily-armed kid saying “so what are you going to do to me? Send me to Iraq?”

Andy Rooney surprised the hell out of me in his commentary on “60 Minutes” last Sunday. He hated his time in the Army in World War Two, thinking it was an institution that was militantly not fun. He wound up calling for a return to the Draft, so that everyone would have a chance to agree with him.

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

Close Window