European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 05, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday May 5, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 11 alcoholism called widespread services battling booze by Bernard Weinraub or. . Times news service Washington he recalls the morn Ings arriving in the Pentagon Shakey and dishevelled taking a gulp of whiskey before leaving the parking lot and stepping into his office. He recalls lunch hours slipping into his car for a Long drink or driving into the capital to buy a pint of whiskey and take a swig out of it before returning to the Pentagon. And he recalls the nights driving Home in a blur after More whiskey slamming the door and screaming at his terrified wife and daughters. It was humiliating for me and it was humiliating for them said capt. Stuart m. Brownell a recovered alcoholic who Heads the Navy s alcoholism prevention program. My first skipper was an Alco Nolle. Some of my friends were alcoholics. I be seen alcoholics up and Down the line from seamen to admirals. We be got the same problems in the armed society has maybe quietly and earnestly the armed forces Are starting to Cope with alcoholism a far More serious and widespread problem than narcotics. There Are an estimated 55, 000 alcoholics in the Navy 10 per cent of the total Force. Twenty per cent of All army officers and 32 per cent of enlisted men Are either heavy drinkers or Binge drinkers who become intoxicated for More than one Day at a tune according to a Gen eral accounting office report. Various sur Veys have indicated that the number of youths entering the armed forces with Al Cohol problems is increasing. Compounding the difficulty for medical officers is a traditional reluctance within the armed forces to recognize alcoholism As a medical problem. Moreover drinking whiskey and getting drunk is often part of army and Navy life the expected thing Todo. For some Navy men drinking Symbol izes Good Fellowship and virility the rough Manly image said capt. R. W. Steyn a Navy psychiatrist who treats Alco Holics. And an image is almost literally a perception without a key step the various services have begun to de emphasize and Deg Lori by the use of alcohol. The services Are or Dering an end to Happy hours the time Between 5 and 7 . On Friday when service clubs sell drinks at half Price. The services have also ordered base Russell Baker new York not i had Coffee with or. Irving Slezak the Brilliant genetic re searcher. He brought some genes and a chopping knife. Working with the skill of a master salad chef he chopped one of the genes into dozens of tiny parts threw half of them away and tossed the rest into a salad repeated the process with the second Gene then stirred the bowl vigorously at the same time explaining. One Gene he said belonged to a truck Driver and the other to a state policeman. By blending the two he hoped to produce a Brand new form of life a truck Driver who immediately upon exceeding the 55 mile an hour Speed limit would pull himself Over and give himself a had bigger projects afoot in the lab be confided. Would you believe a topless go go dancer crossed with a Seal he whispered. You re mad. Slezak. Mad won t think i m mad when i produce a topless dancer who can perform without a single Goose pimple in a room heated to a Mere 36 degrees he far he had succeeded Only in producing a Seal that liked to take off its brassiere and twitch to loud records he confessed. But in the meantime other miraculous Gene stews were being now he was combining the genes of a midget with the genes of an interstate High Way to produce a smaller Turnpike which would Force people to drive smaller ," i said. Turnpikes Don t have if that s right he asked How come i be already got 17 midgets with do not Cross median strip signs growing in their navels Slezak speared a Coffee Gene in his cup and held it up then dropped it on the table and before it could wriggle to safety chopped it into tiny pieces. Now give me one of your genes he said. What for by blending a human Gene with a Coffee Gene he said i shall reduce the outrageous Price of Coffee by producing a Man with built in caffeine. He will no longer need hell need constant infusions of milk and sugar i said. Then i la Cross him with a cow and a sugar beet said Slezak. Use your own Gene i said. It s too dangerous he said. America in t ready for a mooing beet that s absolutely Brilliant. It still does t know what to do with Henry i edged a Safe distance from the great scientist s chopping Blade and switched the sub led is it True or Slezak that you Are actually a clone a canard he snorted a distortion of truth spread by my enemies who would have the world bal eve that the great Irving Slezak had himself cloned from a wart on his ear Tot thu Stone overpowers him one dark night in a frenzy of Martish rage hurled his genes into a Venus Flytrap and assumed Slezak s identity. A vicious fiction the truth was far More botanical he explained. He Irving Slezak had for years Bee two pack a Day cigarette habit. Being unable to abandon his Brilliant work to break the habit he decided to outwit it. He said i spent two weeks locked in the lab crossing myself with a tobacco commanders to serve soft drinks on All social occasions and called for an end touch traditions As awarding alcoholic prizes. The system of stacking order ing a half dozen or so Beers or whiskers when a club is set to dose is also these moves the services especially the Navy have intensified their treatment programs for alcoholics. It was a hard fight to get started said vice adm. Wizard p. Arentzen. Navy sur Geon general. There was the stigma of alcoholism wanting to cover it up. And there was the problem of getting physicians to actually recognize the problems the Pat terns the stomach ailments the broken Bones the depression the hypertension. The average physician did t like to treat alcoholics he did t understand them he was t Navy s elaborate program which depends largely on Counselor and officers who were formerly alcoholics involves re habilitation centers attached to hospitals and Camps across the . As Well As such bases As Guantanamo Bay Cuba Tokuso a Japan and therapy psychodrama on going rap sessions films on alcohol abuse physical exercise daily sessions of alcoholic Anonymous a Cornerstone of the pro Gram and the use of antabuse. A drug that produces a revulsion to alcohol Are Central to the six week 5,000 to 6,000 alcoholics Are treated each year Only about 8 per Centof the alcoholics in the Navy and Marine corps. Nearly 70 per cent of them Are eventually considered in addition some 14,000 members of the Navy and Marine corps Are treated As out patients at rehabilitation dry docks centers for servicemen with alcohol prob lems but who Are Able to work their jobs. Why so Many servicemen have alcohol problems remains unclear. Scientifically no one knows Why someone becomes an Al said cmdr. William j. Klein Anavy psychiatrist who Heads the alcohol rehabilitation unit at the National naval medical Center in Bethesda s often a lot of disruption in Early lives broken Homes heavy drinking in the family turmoil he said. Tragically for every alcoholic there s a network of people who were drawn into the pathology of the disease and suffer the effects of Alco holism families who try to cover up and deny it. They re victims , the head of the Navy s alcohol prevention program said that numerous men Volunteer to undergo rehabilitation or Are ordered into the Hospital by com manding officers after a particularly humiliating years ago i was supposed to give a briefing to the joint chiefs of staff on computer systems i was working on he recalled. I knew i could t do it sober be cause i had the tremors my voice Shook. I had no Confidence. But i realized that if i took a drink they d smell it on me. So i got drunk passed out and took myself out of he said. That s when my Admiral ordered me into treat ment. It saved my letters the Way it s done i am writing in regard to the Organiza Tion of racquetball dubs and tournaments. The question is who organizes these pro Grams i was entered in the most recent playoff Here in Wurzburg and i must say it was somewhat of a farce. My second game in the tournament and this is not the first i be Ever participated in was against the top Man in Usa eur for the past ump teen years. Needless to say i lost the match. Then i started wondering what an open class player like him was doing beginning the series competing against class c or b players like me. When i confronted my opponent after that match i got the impression that nothing could be done and no other system could or had been used. Is racquetball strictly an open matches far As tournaments Are concerned can t there be an allowance made for us slightly above average players i la Nev Rexcel in the sport if this happens every time i enter a tournament. I understand that the open or elimination process is the Way it s been done in the past. This also Means a Man who is a lesser player than me can go farther in a tournament Only because he did t play that Guy who blew my doors off in his second match. My suggestion is to have two separate categories consisting of class a and class b players. The top one or two compete in the next higher class and so on. This Way you la Start out opposing players of your own Caliper and that alone will serve As an , t Larry a. Williams Sunburg Germany reminder All letters to the Eif Tor most contain full name and address of the writer and most be signed. Unsigned letters will not be considered for publication. Because of the Large volume of mail this column receives daily letters that Are Brief and to the Point have a much better Chance of being " i cried. Once you became partly tobacco you immediately lest the desire of an imbecilic lab assistant had supplied Tomato Renes instead of tobacco genes. The two plants Are related of course Butslha was Tex curl few the i slip up. The result was that i w All hunger for tobacco but develop Eden Sable a til for Salt and Pepper. Worcestershire sauce Bacon lettuce and a aha. I thought this explains Why Slezak takes his Coffee with two heaping Teaspoons of a by l said As he brushed a Tomato worm off his Lapel and Rose to return to the not Allf n
