Leadership: December 12, 2001

Archives

Alcoholic drinks were banned in the U.S. Navy in 1914. Ever since, the sailors have been trying to get around this, officially and unofficially. Sailors quickly began setting up secret stills to brew small quantities of a potent moonshine drink. But by World War II the navy began carrying beer and allowing the sailors, after many months at sea, to be taken a few hundred meters from the ship in one of the lifeboats and drink two cans of beer. The charade of drinking the beer on the small boats (so no alcohol was being consumed "on the ship") has since been dropped and regulations established for when beer may be consumed. Currently, for every 45 days at sea without a port call, there is a "beer day", in which every member of the crew gets two cans or bottles of beer. That means aircraft carriers are shipping out with over a thousand cases of beer on board, all closely guarded by armed marines.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close