The Turned On Army
Despite frantic Pentagon attempts to keep the facts secret, it is becoming increasingly clear that America is less-than-proud possessor of a turned-on Army. Embarrassing as it may be to American officials, our soldiers have grown up in the same world as our collegians, and the response of both groups has been the same: tune in, turn on.
The latest Army marijuana “scandal” came to light concerns Fort Hood, home of the First and Second Armored Divisions, and called by GI users Fort Head.
According to a recent Times post Service story, a conservative estimate is that a minimum of 400 pounds of grass is consumed monthly at the military installation. This will make up to 30,000 monthly jays -military slang for joints – for the 35,000 man base. This means that between 6,000 and 12,000 soldiers at Fort Hood are regular marijuana smokers.
In addition to the marijuana brought in from Mexico, and the grass harvested from the bases’ target ranges, other psychedelics such as peyote, the mountain laurel berry and the mescal bean grow in the area and are widely used.
Most officers charged with enforcing anti-dope rules agree that usage is extremely heavy, but are frustrated in attempts to stomp it out. One reason for the frustration is that usage has spread to the military police. Last February, seven members of the 518th MP Battalion were busted for possession.
In addition, LSD is manufactured in the Army’s own labs by a hip chemist who obtains lysergic acid from ergotamine tartrate and coffergote, two drugs routinely prescribed for some disorders. In the same labs, peyote is converted into mescaline, and the active and still legal psychedelic ingredient, sophorine, is extracted from mescal beans. The drugs are then distributed through regular underground channels on the base.
Another source of high-grade LSD, 98% pure and reported better even than purple owsleys, is Edgewood Arsenol, a part of the secret chemical and biological warfare complex at Fort Detrick, Maryland. These supplies have been stolen from under the Army’s startled noses.
What does a person do while stoned on an Army base? Trust GI field experience. Some, light show freaks, congregate on a hill overlooking night gunnery practice. Reports one, “we get stoned and go up on a hill and watch. Man, do you flash on the tracer bullets and the flares and the big balls of fire rolling down the target range.”
Fort Hood Vietnam veterans almost unanimously agree that a large majority of their Vietnam buddies smoke. One sergeant reported reports that “about 75% of my unit in Nam smoked grass.”
A soldier who fought with the First Infantry Division reports that, “the first thing we did in our outfit when we got a dead gook was search him for his dope stash.”
There is disagreement on whether going under fire while stoned makes a better or worse soldier, but all agree that a majority of soldiers do it.
A sergeant recently returned from Vietnam summed up the growing sense of resentment and rebellion against the Army: “I killed for the United States and all that nasty shit and still they could put me in jail for smoking this joy!”
– Kaleidoscope, Wisconsin, Volume 1, Number 19, 1968
