NORFOLK, Va.—The Navy and Marines said Monday they plan to introduce random breath tests of personnel on duty as part of a broader health-and-safety push, a move officials concede will be a tough sell with weary troops after a decade of war.
The Navy and Marines will introduce random breath tests of personnel on duty as part of a broader health-and-safety push, Nathan Hodge reports on Lunch Break. (Photo: Getty Images)
The U.S. military already randomly tests members of all branches for illegal drug use. But resorting to breath tests—which detect blood alcohol levels from a breath sample—represents a first for military personnel.
Some Navy crew members, for instance, will have to take a breath test when reporting aboard a ship for duty and other sailors will be subjected to random inspections.
Officials described the alcohol-testing program as an "inspection and prevention" tool to identify sailors or Marines who may need counseling or treatment. Service members who test positive for alcohol won't be allowed to go on duty, but won't be penalized with a permanent record of the result. The Army and the Air Force don't have policies on breath tests.
The program is part of a larger series of personnel policies that the Navy and Marine Corps are promoting to discourage substance abuse and promote fitness—and to keep sailors, Marines and their families ready for deployment.
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Members of the armed forces have drinks and cigars at a bar together after returning to Fort Hood, Texas, from Iraq in December.
Among other things, the program will promote safe driving and motorcycle safety. As part of a push to cut down on tobacco use, which contributes to rising military health-care costs, the Navy and Marines will end discounts on cigarettes at base stores. Tobacco use among service members is higher than in the general population.
While the war in Iraq is now over, and combat operations in Afghanistan are set to come to an end, officials say they expect the pace of deployment to remain high, particularly as the Pentagon shifts focus to the Pacific region.
"The new defense strategy will put increased responsibilities on the Navy and Marine Corps in the years to come," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in an "all hands" meeting aboard the amphibious ship USS Bataan. "You, sailors and Marines, are the department's most essential asset, and it is the duty of this department's leadership to do all we can to provide every individual sailor and every individual Marine with the resources to maintain that resiliency."
Mr. Mabus acknowledged that the alcohol program was likely to be controversial. "We're not telling you not to drink, if you're old enough. We are telling you that it's important to keep legal, responsible use of alcohol from turning into a problem."
Military officials also have expressed concern about the psychological toll from repeat combat deployments over the past decade. The Army, for instance, introduced new screening and treatment for post-traumatic stress and brain injuries, in response to a suicide rate that began rising in 2005. While Army officials recently said the number of suicides had leveled off, they remained concerned about problems such sexual assault and domestic abuse.
Officials in charge of the services are "very conscious after a decade of combat…[troops] have earned the opportunity to blow off steam in a responsible way," a senior Navy official said. Random testing, the official added, was "not a punitive tool."
The Navy's submarine fleet in the Pacific has already experimented with a pilot breath-test program that began in 2009. Officials say that program led to a 45% decrease in alcohol-related incidents, such as arrests for driving under the influence.
The Marines haven't launched a pilot program but will begin breath testing in April.
Some enlistees expressed concern over the new policy.
Lance Cpl. Nicholas Wiley, a Marine who attended the meeting, said Mr. Mabus's announcement was the first time he had heard of the initiative. But he said it "could go good or bad. It could get good Marines in trouble" for drinking the night before duty.
Veterans catching up on the policy via the Navy's Facebook page had mixed reactions. "So glad to be retired," wrote one.
Write to Nathan Hodge at Nathan.Hodge@wsj.com
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