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Boozing through the Soviet–Afghan war
- cafard 5y agoAlvin Kernan wrote an excellent memoir of his WW II enlisted naval service, Crossing the Line. His first boss stayed slightly drunk all day on alcohol meant for cleaning gun sights. (The US Navy had been officially "dry" at sea for many years.) In James Jones's Guadalcanal novel, Thin Red Line, the first thing the GIs do when the fighting is over is to start making home-brew with canned fruit. Given that service in a war zone is divided between boredom and risk of imminent death, one understands the attraction of alcohol.