Army to enforce 2 a.m. curfew in Baumholder

[unhappycamper]

Army to enforce 2 a.m. curfew in Baumholder
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, September 20, 2007

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — A 2 a.m. curfew will take effect Friday for U.S. troops in Baumholder as local Army leaders seek to curtail access to all-night bars that cater to soldiers and serve as springboards for trouble on city streets.

City officials also have been pondering whether to establish a closing time for bars to quell some of the unruliness that too often erupts during the early morning hours, but so far no law has been enacted.

The Army curfew will require soldiers to be out of downtown establishments and off city streets by 2 a.m.

~snip~

“We have a lot of 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids. They need to be looked out for, for their physical and economic well-being.”

Brawls among soldiers, often occurring after marathon drinking sessions, have become too common, Welch said.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=48894


uhc comment: Slipping discipline is a good indicator of problems in the military. It happened in Viet Nam almost 40 years ago, and it's happening again.

[Squatch]

1. Your comment

"Slipping discipline is a good indicator of problems in the military...it's happening again."

Discipline problems among a few unruly soldiers has always been prevalent. Usually, commanders take measures (including this curfew) to reestablish discipline. This is absolutely nothing new and I have not witnessed any patterns of decreasing discipline. If anything, I would say that the current Army is much more disciplined than the one that I joined in 1994.

[unhappycamper]

3. I don't know.

So far, to keep The Army Of One going, they now allow gang members, lotsa moral waivers, and reduced standards for almost everything.

The troops do multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, with large percentage of boots on the ground coming from the Reserves and National Guard.

The VA is broken, with somewhere between 400,000 to 600,000 pending disability cases waiting in VA limbo.

The Democratically controlled congress can't do shit to get them out of Iraq.

I'll agree with you on the few bad apples, but I can also argue that not looking for bad apples when people come in to enlist pretty much insures you're gonna get more of them.

[Squatch]

4. The NG is currently transitioning from a strategic reserve to

an operational force, therefore the more NG BOGs in this war. It's a paradigm shift and one that is long overdue. The perception of the "Nasty Girl" is changing and the NG will be on par with the readiness of the active component by FY11 or FY12.

The NG is going to do that

- while maintaining the great culture of the citizen soldier
- while maintaining a strength of over 360,000 soldiers
- while transforming to a modern and modular expeditionary force

[NYVet]

2. 12 years ago I was in Germany

And we had not a few brawls in Germany after all night drinking sessions. They were usually handled within the chain of command with extra duty and unique ways to take the extra energy out of the soldiers.

Young people drinking and being stupid is nothing new. The fact that the army is really cracking down and the general public is hearing about it is different though.