thedrifter
07-09-07, 07:51 AM
26th MEU back from deployment
Marines pushed for more lenient policy on minimum drinking age
By Trista Talton - ttalton@militarytimes.com
Posted : July 16, 2007
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — There’s nothing quite like the taste of a cold beer when you step off a ship, if you ask Pfc. Kevin Cicik.
“Being on a ship for so long — a beer is the best thing you can have,” Cicik said June 30 shortly after stepping on U.S. soil at the end of the 26th Marine Expedition Unit’s deployment.
He was teetering on the brink of turning 21 when the MEU was in Rota, Spain, the MEU’s last port visit before returning to Camp Lejeune after a routine float.
His age, since he was at least 18, didn’t matter when he headed off for a cold one in Spain. That’s thanks, in part, to some vocal underage Marines who hounded Commandant Gen. James Conway and Sgt. Maj. John Estrada, former sergeant major of the Marine Corps, during their visit to the MEU in the Middle East earlier this year.
“We got the courage to ask,” Cicik said.
Estrada later said the Marines “beat us down” on the drinking question. Leathernecks argued that sailors younger than 21 were allowed to drink during overseas port calls, yet they could not.
“Marines would go out there and underage drink anyway,” Cicik said.
Much to their surprise, the Marines asking the questions got what they wanted. On April 19, Conway signed off on MarAdmin 266/07, revising the Corps’ alcohol control policy to allow 18-year-old Marines to drink in foreign ports if the host nation’s law allows. The Army, Navy and Air Force have similar policies, giving overseas commanders the option of allowing troops considered underage in the U.S. to drink if the host nation’s law allows it.
The new rules also include welcome-home beer for underage Marines coming back from deployment and give commanders the authority to hold an 18-and-up kegger on base for special occasions. Under the rule change, commanders can drop the drinking age to 18 in the U.S. under “special circumstances” as long as it’s on base and can authorize the possession and consumption of alcohol by underage Marines in the barracks.
“The amazing part was that lance corporals asked those questions and the commandant of the Marine Corps came back and responded,” said 1st Lt. Luke Devore. “Everybody was impressed by that. It was just amazing turn-around time.”
He and his wife, Amber, rested on the trunk of their car and sipped beers in a parking lot June 30 near W.P.T. Field, where CH-46 Sea Knights and MV-22 Ospreys dropped off Marines and sailors to awaiting families and friends. Ospreys did not deploy with the 26th MEU.
Luke Devore said the MEU had only a handful of Marines younger than 21 and that, for them, the new rule didn’t equate to a rush for alcohol, but rather, contentment.
“Our Marines did a great job in the ports,” he said.
The latest drinking rule was news to Lance Cpl. Jonathan Bishop, who waited in the back of a pickup truck to greet a friend coming home.
“Why does it have to happen when I’m going to be turning 21?” he asked. “I’m going to have to bring this up to my platoon.”
Bishop, who will be of legal drinking age July 21, is deploying with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, later this year. But he said he suspects he’ll prefer a Red Bull over a beer when his unit returns from Iraq next year.
Much of what Marines and sailors in the MEU did during their deployment included bilateral training with troops in places such as Jordan, Kenya and Djibouti. The unit spent about two weeks training in Kuwait and placed on a stand-by a few times to go into Iraq.
An investigation continues into the friendly fire mishap involving aircraft assigned to the 26th MEU. An AH-1W Super Cobra and UH-1N Huey were on the ground in Jordan when an AV-8B Harrier dropped a bomb near the helicopters May 25. The Cobra’s pilot and gunner were injured and sent back to the U.S.
The MEU also transported the Corps’ first Marine special operations company, which was not under the MEU’s command. Eight members of the company were sent home this spring following accusations that one of the company’s platoons killed 19 Afghan civilians after responding to a suicide ambush March 4. The regional special operations commander ejected the entire company from Afghanistan after the incident, and an investigation into the case is ongoing.
Ellie
Marines pushed for more lenient policy on minimum drinking age
By Trista Talton - ttalton@militarytimes.com
Posted : July 16, 2007
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — There’s nothing quite like the taste of a cold beer when you step off a ship, if you ask Pfc. Kevin Cicik.
“Being on a ship for so long — a beer is the best thing you can have,” Cicik said June 30 shortly after stepping on U.S. soil at the end of the 26th Marine Expedition Unit’s deployment.
He was teetering on the brink of turning 21 when the MEU was in Rota, Spain, the MEU’s last port visit before returning to Camp Lejeune after a routine float.
His age, since he was at least 18, didn’t matter when he headed off for a cold one in Spain. That’s thanks, in part, to some vocal underage Marines who hounded Commandant Gen. James Conway and Sgt. Maj. John Estrada, former sergeant major of the Marine Corps, during their visit to the MEU in the Middle East earlier this year.
“We got the courage to ask,” Cicik said.
Estrada later said the Marines “beat us down” on the drinking question. Leathernecks argued that sailors younger than 21 were allowed to drink during overseas port calls, yet they could not.
“Marines would go out there and underage drink anyway,” Cicik said.
Much to their surprise, the Marines asking the questions got what they wanted. On April 19, Conway signed off on MarAdmin 266/07, revising the Corps’ alcohol control policy to allow 18-year-old Marines to drink in foreign ports if the host nation’s law allows. The Army, Navy and Air Force have similar policies, giving overseas commanders the option of allowing troops considered underage in the U.S. to drink if the host nation’s law allows it.
The new rules also include welcome-home beer for underage Marines coming back from deployment and give commanders the authority to hold an 18-and-up kegger on base for special occasions. Under the rule change, commanders can drop the drinking age to 18 in the U.S. under “special circumstances” as long as it’s on base and can authorize the possession and consumption of alcohol by underage Marines in the barracks.
“The amazing part was that lance corporals asked those questions and the commandant of the Marine Corps came back and responded,” said 1st Lt. Luke Devore. “Everybody was impressed by that. It was just amazing turn-around time.”
He and his wife, Amber, rested on the trunk of their car and sipped beers in a parking lot June 30 near W.P.T. Field, where CH-46 Sea Knights and MV-22 Ospreys dropped off Marines and sailors to awaiting families and friends. Ospreys did not deploy with the 26th MEU.
Luke Devore said the MEU had only a handful of Marines younger than 21 and that, for them, the new rule didn’t equate to a rush for alcohol, but rather, contentment.
“Our Marines did a great job in the ports,” he said.
The latest drinking rule was news to Lance Cpl. Jonathan Bishop, who waited in the back of a pickup truck to greet a friend coming home.
“Why does it have to happen when I’m going to be turning 21?” he asked. “I’m going to have to bring this up to my platoon.”
Bishop, who will be of legal drinking age July 21, is deploying with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, later this year. But he said he suspects he’ll prefer a Red Bull over a beer when his unit returns from Iraq next year.
Much of what Marines and sailors in the MEU did during their deployment included bilateral training with troops in places such as Jordan, Kenya and Djibouti. The unit spent about two weeks training in Kuwait and placed on a stand-by a few times to go into Iraq.
An investigation continues into the friendly fire mishap involving aircraft assigned to the 26th MEU. An AH-1W Super Cobra and UH-1N Huey were on the ground in Jordan when an AV-8B Harrier dropped a bomb near the helicopters May 25. The Cobra’s pilot and gunner were injured and sent back to the U.S.
The MEU also transported the Corps’ first Marine special operations company, which was not under the MEU’s command. Eight members of the company were sent home this spring following accusations that one of the company’s platoons killed 19 Afghan civilians after responding to a suicide ambush March 4. The regional special operations commander ejected the entire company from Afghanistan after the incident, and an investigation into the case is ongoing.
Ellie