October 31, 2010, - 5:30 pm
Sunday “Fun”: US WWII STD Memo Shows Lost Morality of Yesteryear
I thought I’d give you all a break from the media’s non-stop coverage of the mid-term elections and the Muslim explosives from Yemen aimed at the Jews. Below is a document from my collection of World War II memorabilia. (Most of my stuff is Jewish WWII and WWI memorabilia–dog tags, letters, etc.–so if you have any you’re willing to part with, please let me know).
Although it’s undated, it’s in fact from WWII, though I don’t have a specific time or year. The document pertains to soldiers having sex with women who are not their wives and sexually transmitted diseases. Why would I post a memo on such a sleazy topic? I think it’s an important document because it contrasts with today’s military, which gives few admonishments (if any) against this kind of behavior and how it helps the enemy. There was at least some sense of moral decency back then in this area. Very little of it now (and you have a third of a ship’s female soldiers–back in the first Gulf War–getting impregnated; of course, there were few female soldiers back then).
Although it may seem quaint to some, I think it’s great the government actually had the good sense to try to preach some semblance of morality to our soldiers, even if it then provided “medical advice” on how to “get treated.” You’ll note that the medical advice isn’t exactly sound and that there are separate “prophylactic stations” for “White” and “Colored.” But, to me, the story here is the absolute lack of morality preached to our soldiers, today, compared to back then. Sad.
Tags: documents, extramarital, memo, morality, morals, prophylactic stations, Prophylaxis, sex, sexual morality, sexual morals, STDs, US military, venereal disease, World War II, WWII
I’m sorry, Debbie but I completely disagree. I’ve just spent the last 16 years as an active duty member of the military and I’m baffled as to why you would say that we aren’t educated about STDs and the proper use of condoms. Maybe they don’t type out silly little letters about “loose women” anymore but we are constantly presented with information, straight from from miliary and civilians doctors, about numbers, percentages of reported STDs of both military and civilian populations. These numbers are presented for base-wide, nation-wide and even broken down into reported cases in each of the U.S. services. We are confronted with these numbers on a fairly consistant basis, such as quarterly and annualy and anytime we deploy or return from a deployment. I’m sad to see that you’ve made this report without doing any research. Simply asking any service member would have brought out a moan at the idea of how many hours we sit listening to some doctor telling us constantly to “wrap it up”. It’s enough to make us wanna be celebate. Almost.
TK: You missed my point entirely. There’s a big difference between “education” on STDs and morality discouraging soldiers from having sex and sleeping around. Today, the former may happen, but the latter does NOT. I have done my research. In fact, we see so many soldiers coming back who have fathered kids out of wedlock or who are pregnant, more so than at any time before. The stats back me up, not your anecdotes. Sorry. Yes, it is a reflection of how our society in general behaves, but it doesn’t change the fact that the military, today, would never have the guts to tell soldiers any of the moral instruction in that memo from WWII. DS
Taj Kramer on October 31, 2010 at 6:55 pm