Troop Talk
Proposed drinking age policy change
Fort Bliss leadership recently executed a comprehensive review of our alcohol and safety trends and policies across the installation.
Ultimately focused on the well-being and readiness of our Soldiers and families, I have requested approval to permanently change the drinking age on Fort Bliss from 18 to 21, and to modify Fort Bliss’ procedure for alcohol sales.
The main reason for requesting these changes is the visible and disturbing data regarding the 18-to-20-year-old age group with respect to alcohol. For instance, 18 percent of our Soldier population is younger than 21, but they account for 75 percent of sexual assaults involving alcohol, 40 percent of fatalities involving alcohol, 27 percent of DWI and DUI cases, and 29 percent of all indiscipline incidents involving alcohol.
Every year, about 5,000 people under the age of 21 die after drinking. This includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns and drownings.
Additionally, when a Soldier under 21 has been involved in an alcohol-related incident, the average blood-alcohol content was significantly higher than those involving Soldiers over 21. These findings strongly indicate the practice of binge drinking, which is not uncommon for this age group – even among college students. Binge drinking is a major health, safety and legal concern. Additionally, Soldiers have been buying alcohol on post then going off post to hotels and drinking, sometimes with underage civilians. There have also been cases of Soldiers buying alcohol on post and selling it to underage civilians. These situations highlighted to post leadership that we were not operating consistently with our surrounding community. Fort Bliss’ rules should be in line with those of Texas, New Mexico and the nation, all of which share a common drinking age of 21. Additionally, many other installations near the border do not practice this policy, and the Marines have maintained a 21-year-old drinking age on post.
The current 18-year-old drinking age policy was put in place to discourage Soldiers from traveling to Mexico to drink. Ultimately, more stringent and demanding border-crossing requirements to and from Mexico, plus the lingering dangers plaguing Juarez today, which led to placing it off limits to Fort Bliss Soldiers, have overcome the original intent of the policy.
Once the policy change is approved, it will take effect 15 days following the approval. We will announce accordingly and provide direction through the chain of command.
As mentioned, we will also modify the hours when alcohol can be sold on post. Again, this change will better align Fort Bliss with state laws, support efforts to deglamorize alcohol and still allow Soldiers and families great flexibility in purchasing alcohol, both packaged and within our establishments that serve it. These changes would include stopping alcohol sales in the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Morale, Welfare and Recreation facilities at all locations at 1 a.m. Alcohol sales would resume at 9 a.m. at the Class Six store Monday through Friday and at noon on Sunday.
I must emphasize that these changes do not suggest any lack of confidence in our Soldiers and their ability to make responsible decisions. However, recent trends, stringent entry requirements for Mexico and inconsistency with our surrounding communities and sister installations across the nation ultimately drove Fort Bliss leadership to agree that it is time for action.
Maj. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg
Fort Bliss Commanding General