Posted on 01/11/2006 3:49:15 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Red lights in certain, seedy districts of European cities have come to mean anything but stop.
But since the Department of Defense has specifically made it a crime for U.S. troops to patronize prostitutes worldwide, those red lights could mean trouble for U.S. servicemembers.
Even though the formal order came in an Oct. 14 presidential executive order, the news was still reaching some troops stationed in Europe. In fact, two of the three services reached said there was no formal program to tell servicemembers of the change.
“It’s nothing that’s new,” said U.S. Army Europe spokesman Bob Purtiman.
Soliciting a prostitute has always been part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s sexual misconduct and always has been against good order and discipline, Purtiman said. With the presidential executive order, it’s just now found in another part of the UMCJ, thus, there is no need to brief soldiers in Europe, he said.
Farther south in Naples, Italy, sailors stationed there said they were not aware of the order.
“I didn’t know about it, but I’m not surprised to see it,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jimmy Fields with Naval Forces Europe. Soliciting prostitutes, Fields said, goes against good leadership.
Neither Naval Forces Europe nor Commander, 6th Fleet have formal programs to make sailors aware of the new order, but it has been covered in Navywide training programs, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Steven Galvan.
“In addition, the Navy has created an online course to enhance basic awareness of the prohibitions against trafficking in persons,” he said.
Galvan said the command is unaware of any cases of sailors in Europe being charged with soliciting a prostitute since the October order. Commands, he said, would normally handle these cases in a nonjudicial setting, and no requirement exists to report these individual cases up the chain of command.
Asked on Monday about how the Air Force was letting airmen know of the new order, officials at U.S. Air Forces in Europe failed to respond by deadline.
Airman 1st Class Joshua Van Ness, who is stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, said he was unaware of the legal change but said it will not affect him because he does not partake in such services.
“I didn’t know if it was legal or not legal in the first place,” said Van Ness. “I just know that [prostitutes are] around here.”
On some evenings, cars or motor homes with red lights illuminating the inside can be seen parked on roads outside U.S. installations in the Kaiserslautern military community. In Germany, prostitution is legal as long as prostitutes have a license, said Christiane Lautenschläger, a spokeswoman with the Kaiserslautern Polizei.
But Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Austin, 39, a soldier with the 100th Area Support Group in Grafenwöhr, Germany, said troops should stay away from such places.
“If you are married, you shouldn’t be visiting no prostitutes,” he said. “If you are not married you shouldn’t be either. It is called safe sex.”
Stars and Stripes reporters Seth Robson and Geoff Ziezulewicz contributed to this report.
L
No better way to put it into words.
Put them in the back of a 2.5 ton truck and bring them on base. Then set them loose. That did happen once:)
Why would Bush issue an E.O.? He's the Commander-in-Chief.
We know damned well Clinton never proposed this directive. I think he actually encouraged it.
While prostitution is legal in some countries, the very brief comment about "trafficking in persons" is telling. No way we would want to offically condone or approve the international slave trade in sex workers worldwide. This is, of course, letting alone the terrible moral problems and health risks to service people and families back home.
The military has gone back an forth so many times on this...it's not funny.
They had brothels in HAWAII during WWII, Boys Town in Laredo was set up during the Mexican-American War...Vietnam...they'd deliver.
It's a crime, but (having been) an 18-year old E3 can be awfully confused in some places in our strange world. Imagine a non-worldly kid from BFE, Minnesota in a large European city. He's never been anywhere, never been in a city of more than 25,000 people. Here is this thing that's illegal in the States...and legal there.
Awfully easy for the kid to make a mistake.
I've seen it...and lived it (although patronizing German hookers was not one of the mistakes I made) from both the angle of being the actual E3 and (in later years) being the E3's commanding officer.
This clarification is probably a good thing.
All we need now is a warning about the military base trolls...the women who're looking to hook up with a military guy in order to escape Hicksville.
What if it's legal where the serviceman/woman is visiting, such as Nevada?
In Germany, prostitution is legal as long as prostitutes have a license, said Christiane Lautenschläger, a spokeswoman with the Kaiserslautern Polizei.
So engaging in legal commerce is a crime now?
What, is the world coming too?
Don't ask, don't tell..
UCMJ jurisdiction is not based on geography, but on the individual's status as a member of the Armed Services.
From what I heard.
Maybe the military needs to institute a new speciality: Camp Follower.
An executive order is how he communicates his rules.
Oh wait, I get it, "NO PAYING FOR SEX".
Works for me, who want's to be first?
In reality, I never paid for it, but I did do a lot of work
for the Mamasan of my favorite bar, and naturally the girls
wanted to show their appreciation. Which I naturally appreciated.
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