{"id":19236,"date":"2014-06-30T05:45:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T09:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=19236"},"modified":"2014-06-29T19:29:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-29T23:29:10","slug":"trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Trying to stop smoking in the military"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The men and women in our military, for various understandable reasons, smoke quite a bit more than the general public.\u00a0 So our government has been launching campaigns of both persuasion and coercion to make our troops stop using tobacco.<\/p>\n

Whatever you think of the controversy, you have to appreciate this quotation from a Marine:\u00a0 \u201d \u201cWe sleep in the dirt for this country. We get shot at for this country. But we can\u2019t have a cigarette if we want to for this country, because that\u2019s unhealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Walter Pincus, Some lawmakers worry about troops smoking, but Defense officials warn them to go easy \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In 1985, all military smoking was at 47 percent. It\u2019s dropped to 30 percent. However, as the March 14 memo states, \u201cAn estimated 175,000 current active duty service members .\u2009.\u2009. will die from smoking unless we can help them quit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Durbin pointed out that the rate of smoking among the military is 20 percent higher than the overall U.S. civilian rate and that service members\u2019 use of smokeless tobacco has gone up to more than 400 percent higher than the U.S. average.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne out of three members of the military who use tobacco today say they started after they enlisted,\u201d Durbin added.<\/p>\n

The last major military smoking study, requested by the Pentagon in 2007 and completed by the Institute of Medicine in 2009, found that \u201csmoking rates among military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan may be 50\u2009percent higher than rates among nondeployed military personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The institute\u2019s study said, \u201cCurrent cigarette use in the military is more likely among men, those who are white, have less than a college education, are younger than 34 years old, and are enlisted versus officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2005, smoking rates for 18-to-25-year-old military men was high at 42.2 percent, although it varied by service, with the Army and Marines being highest, and the Air Force the lowest.<\/p>\n

In short, smoking is highest with those most likely to be involved in fighting on the ground. A 2008 study found that \u201csmoking rates increased by 57\u2009percent among those deployed and by 44\u2009percent among those not deployed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last March, when Stars and Stripes carried a story about Navy Secretary Ray Mabus considering a ban on all tobacco sales on ships and bases, the comments received previewed what could come if more actions are taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cTHIS IS OUT OF CONTROL!!!!,\u201d wrote one ex-Marine. \u201cWhen I was sitting in a bunker in Vietnam at 0400, a cigarette gave me comfort and pleasure. OH!!!! It is not good to get lung cancer but a sucking chest wound is???\u201d<\/p>\n

Dempsey was more diplomatic: Because smoking is legal, taking more steps to halt it \u201cis an issue for the broader Congress of the United States, not uniquely for the United States military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), a Marine Reserve major with three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has already acted. He argued at one point: \u201cWe sleep in the dirt for this country. We get shot at for this country. But we can\u2019t have a cigarette if we want to for this country, because that\u2019s unhealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The men and women in our military, for various understandable reasons, smoke quite a bit more than the general public.\u00a0 So our government has been launching campaigns of both persuasion and coercion to make our troops stop using tobacco. Whatever you think of the controversy, you have to appreciate this quotation from a Marine:\u00a0 \u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49],"tags":[1454,2810],"class_list":["post-19236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-war-2","tag-military","tag-smoking"],"yoast_head":"\nTrying to stop smoking in the military<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The men and women in our military, for various understandable reasons, smoke quite a bit more than the general public.\u00a0 So our government has been\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trying to stop smoking in the military\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The men and women in our military, for various understandable reasons, smoke quite a bit more than the general public.\u00a0 So our government has been\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-30T09:45:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-29T23:29:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/\",\"name\":\"Trying to stop smoking in the military\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-30T09:45:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-29T23:29:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The men and women in our military, for various understandable reasons, smoke quite a bit more than the general public.\u00a0 So our government has been\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/trying-to-stop-smoking-in-the-military\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trying to stop smoking in the military\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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