We policed the girly bars fairly well back then when I was lowly Shore Patrol at the bases overseas during PI martial law in the 70's. We hit the streets with the local cops who packed Thomson machine guns while they took protection money from the girls and bar owners while we had a night stick and .45 colt pistol to handle GI problems. It was the Wild West in living color. Dealing in human Vice is a dirty business that requires a thug attitude to deal with what happens in the alleys behind the pretty facade of flashing lights and music up-front. I would like to believe we can just legalize, tax and control drugs/vice in a civilized manner within the USA but my experience says things will be just be bad in a different way after a few years unless we are willing to come down hard on abusers of the system.

 

Dealing in human Vice is a dirty business that requires a thug attitude

Oh. That explains a lot.

 

The military does indeed (or it did in the past), understand how human nature works. When I hit the PI on WESTPAC, they didn't threaten us with punishment, so much as plead with us to be careful, stay in groups, look out for each other, and wear a latex condom. Over and over they stressed the condom. I skated out on having to watch the horror film about penile destruction from Gonorrhea. Woowho!

 

Oh. That explains a lot.

Being able to channel your inner thug when necessary makes things safer for all involved if you need to restore order. A quick tap on the arm with the stick saved the drunks a lot of pain later. We never arrested anyone for just being stupid or running away from trouble, just the crazies. This kept the place fun and safe for all. We also regulated the places (off-limits) and times (Cinderella Liberty/off the streets at midnight) these activities could happen, outside these limits military could be arrested on the spot so there was time to clean-up for the next day.

 

When they said a place was off-limits ... You know a lot of sailors were going there.

Of course some went during the performance of their normal duties.

 

When they said a place was off-limits ... You know a lot of sailors were going there.

Of course some went during the performance of their normal duties.

If they weren't SPs, I wonder what duty would need that type of location?

 

The SP and those in charge of that detail ...

Someone may have checked to see if NSA was still doing his rounds.......

 

The SP and those in charge of that detail ...

Someone may have checked to see if NSA was still doing his rounds.......

We liked to hang out at the better off-limits places because the nicer dives were filled with civilians and contractors from the base who were exempt from the bars rules but were officially still under military jurisdiction during martial law.
One of the better ones was the Tiger Lady Bar. The first floor had a regular bar/GoGo dancers, the second floor was the 'cat' house and the third floor with an open roof was the dopers den. Because of drugs it was officially off-limits to all base personnel but it was 'protected' by the local cops with the Thomsons who would let us in if not in official uniform only for inspection. Sometimes those inspections took a long time on the third floor when we checked to see if the smoking material was a high quality product.

One of my old hats from the period.