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Just wondering if anyone knows what the regulations are regarding the consumption of alcohol in NATO forces these days? When I was in the navy from 1982-1984, I got the chance to share beers with some RN crew members when their cruiser was at San Diego, they actually had a place in their ship to serve drinks off duty. Just wondering about Bundeswehr and other forces regulations.

http://www.n24.de/news/newsitem_4133071.html

Pull that through a translator

990.000 liter beer and 69.000 liter wine for one year in Afghanistan. (Other non-German forces helped to drink it.. at that moment (2008) there were only 3600 germans in Afghanistan.)

As far as I know they do not allow it anymore, but I'm not sure if that's just a rumour.

The Dutch and Danish only serve alcohol-free beer (German Beck's Alkoholfrei at the moment) in Afghanistan, due to the muslim culture..

rationtin440 wrote: Just wondering about Bundeswehr and other forces regulations.

Bundeswehr soldiers are allowed to have two beer a day after duty in Afghansitan.

^Yeah, the (in)famous "two can regulation". I´m not sure, though, how common it is nowadays, since the situation has been drastically going down the drain, especially in Kunduz. I have some members of my company in M-E-S right now, maybe they can tell me more once they´re back.
In Germany the regulations aren´t that strict, though. The only rule is, that you have to be sober during your normal day-time duty (0 promille regulation), but once you´re out of duty you can drink as much as you want, as long as you´re sober the next day. This is especially important when you´ve got to drive or handle firearms. A drunk soldier handling a loaded gun can be a threat to others, so people are really, really strict about that and punishment can be quite severe.

hOMEr_jAy wrote: so people are really, really strict about that and punishment can be quite severe.

just see at 3'47"

@ Homer_jay.. do your friend happen to be with the GebSan from Kempten?

Haha, nice one Stef! The famous "Spießrutenlauf" ^^
Cracker, what friend do you mean? The ones currently in MES?

If you mean Mazar-e-Sharif.. ? A friend of me (a mountain sani.. ) is currently stationed there.. for the 3rd time.

Yeah, MES means Mazar-E-Sharif. Bundeswehr acronym crazyness. ^^
Good luck to your buddy, I hope he makes it back safe. Sanis are being deployed quite often. I´m in a MP company and our NCOs and COs are being deployed quite often, too, especialy the CPTs, dog handlers and precision marksmen. I have the luck (or not?) of being a PFC, so I won´t be deployed, since I´m no trained MP and Privates aren´t needed there....
Oh well, looks like we´ve derailed this thread, maybe someone can share some alcohol and army related stories to bring it back on track. ^^

When I was deployed to Iraq back in 2004-05 we had refridgerator cases full of non-alcoholic beer and soda in the dining facility. Back then you could have as much as you wanted and never have any ill side effects.

Unfortunately, that did not stop a lot of National Guard guys in some of our units making homemade brew or "hootch" and drinking that. Trust me, we had one or two DUI's while in theater on our FOB. For the life of me I still can't understand why somebody would drink homemade "hootch": it's absolutely nasty and smells horrid not to mention risking your military career over a cheap drunk. I guess some people just have to have a drink to get through life or deal with the stress. Either that or they're complete drunks and couldn't stop.