Now that the armed forces are gender-integrated, war-weary soldiers don’t have to wait for leave to get some horizontal R&R. In fact, just about the only good news from the hellholes of Iraq and Afghanistan is that for bored, horny GIs, this surge is definitely working.
Action in Action
War is hell on your sex life. Just ask the young men and women of our armed forces whose libidos are shack led by two wars, frequent deployments, long hours, and the ever-present possibility of being surgically excavated by a roadside bomb.
Add in the isolation of living in the depressed, sequestered communities that play host to so many of our military bases, the sexual politics of rank structure, restrictive policies against fraternization, and a puritanical opinion that maintains fellatio as a punishable offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and well … it all seems to suggest collusion against the men and women of our armed forces from exercising their God-given right to get some ass while they’re protecting our country.
But our troops, exhibiting that same derring-do they display on the battlefield, resist abstinence. In fact, sex is rampant in the U.S. military. From the rugged mountains of Tora Bora in Afghanistan to the squalid barracks in military bases throughout the U.S., our military personnel are increasingly easing the strains of war by stripping off the camouflage and getting down and dirty, as we found when we talked recently with several men and women scattered throughout a military worn from perpetual use.
Meet Staff Sergeant Bobby Danzi, a former Army infantry soldier who’s built like an NFL linebacker, and his acolyte and best friend Sergeant Steve Rendez, a former Denver-area firefighter who joined up after 9/11 (all names in this article have been changed except where the individuals specifically requested their real names be used). Their sexual exploits are considered legendary by soldiers in their unit, and — despite the desperate wishes of nice guys everywhere who can only dream of such exploits — their stories are real.
Part of their legend is derived from Operation: Spring Break 2003 — a monthlong fuck-fest where the two Rangers-in-training drove almost 400 miles roundtrip each night, often high on ecstasy, from Fort Benning, Georgia, to Panama City, Florida, all within the 12-hour window between formations. Once in Panama City, they would feast upon waves of nubile young coeds looking for the type of spring-break fling that only a Ranger on the run could provide. Each night it was one, two, or sometimes three girls. And then back again to Georgia each dawn, beating the clock and stumbling into formation.
“Getting laid is status in the military,” Rendez says. “If you don’t get laid, you don’t get respect. Sex is how you separate yourselves from one another.”
“Most military bases are huge sausage fests,” Danzi explains, referencing the dearth of female troops (making up only 15 percent of the active-duty Army, for example). “So, of course, there’s a fierce competition to get laid. There are so few women, it becomes this hugely important thing.”
Dan Ryan, an X-ray technician in the Michigan Army Reserves and a former infantry soldier, argues that an additional reason sex matters so much is that the future is never certain. “You’re always on training missions,” he says. “You never know when you’ll be deployed and forced into celibacy for a year.… There’s this desperate need to fill up your reservoirs while you can.”
The Soldier and Sex Overseas
You’d think fighting a war wouldn’t lend itself to amorous relations — what with all the explosions and the threat of imminent death — but it’s also the sort of environment that can send one’s sex drive into overtime. And for good reason: Combat creates testosterone, the same body chemical that powers sex drive.
But while most troops are forced into stolid celibacy or, at best, masturbation, some soldiers are getting lucky as women troops increasingly serve beside men in combat-related roles. “In Vietnam they were allowed to visit prostitutes; we’ve got female soldiers,” says Specialist 4 Steve, a soldier who lays claim to a hurried desperate fuck outside the protective walls of a remote firebase in Afghanistan. “It probably wasn’t very safe, but it was the only place where there was a blind spot.”
Sergeant Danzi has his own story of combat coupling: “I was stuck overnight in Kirkuk at the airfield, and I stumbled across these two smoking-hot, hard-bodied Air Force chicks who were water-purification specialists. They had constructed this hot tub out of an old crate, a tarp, and PVC piping. By the end of the night, I was fucking two chicks in a hot tub — in Iraq. Who in their wildest dreams ever thinks that’s going to happen?”
George Brown, a Marine sergeant, tells of a modern-day comfort soldier who welcomed back troops returning from leave in Afghanistan. “She was this cute little brunette with this tight little body,” he says. “She was some guy’s wife who was somewhere else in-theater. And every day, one after another, she’d take guys to some supply shed. She’d even double team you … and she really was attracted to rank.” As all military personnel know, rank is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Scoring with a high-ranking officer is the civilian equivalent of sleeping with a supermodel.
“Being deprived makes you go crazy,” seaman Michael Rob-bins says. And he should know. As a sailor he often endured long stints at sea, buried in the metallic bowels of huge aircraft carriers. He went months without not only sex, but fresh air. “When we pulled into port in Sydney, Australia, within one hour my bunkmate was at the local red-light district coming all over a prostitute’s face. I think it was some sort of record.”
As Michael explains, when it comes to sex, basic market economics of supply and demand often invite creative problem-solving. “On one ship,” he says, “there was one woman who started selling blowjobs for 60 bucks a pop. The petty officer first class in charge of her was her pimp, and they’d go into one of the storage areas at night, post a guard — it was closer to the surface, so the ocean would disguise the noise — and the men would just line up, one after the other, and she’d go down on them in succession until they came. For another 20 bucks you’d get to come on her face. And this would go on for hours. When she was arrested, they found an entire duffle bag filled with rolls of 20-dollar bills.”
The Soldier and G.I. Jane
The motivation to integrate the sexes in the armed forces started with an appropriately principled premise: Women have the right to serve their country on an equal footing with men. The proponents of integration argued that strict guidelines prohibiting fraternization and good old-fashioned military discipline with a touch of professionalism would keep the panties from flying off.
They were wrong.
“They’re doing it everywhere!” Laughs Amy, an Army reservist from California. “In the field, tents, Humvees, storage closets — and two people from my company Were caught in a port-a-potty.”
Despite the faint distant echo of wailing feminists, women troops, though smaller in number than men, are aggressively leveling the playing field in both enthusiasm and libido. Consider the following statistic: From August 2003 to August 2004, gynecologists at Camp Doha in Kuwait found that four percent of all female service members who were screened had become pregnant, most in-theater. A failed policy? Not if you’re finally getting laid before heading out on a convoy route laden with improvised explosive devices.
Kendra Davis, an Air Force lieutenant who works classified intelligence projects, recounts her “fresh from boot camp” arrival at the Presidio in Monterey, California. “They moved a barracks of Marines right next door to the female dorms,” she says. “Right away they started flashing one another in the windows; it was constant penis and boobies. Everyone started hooking up left and right.… It was just nonstop sex.
Specialist Amy, a California Army reservist attached to a signal division, offers tales of constant and consummate relations among her classmates, while in garrison and during field-training exercises.
During basic training, she said, one female soldier even got it on with her drill sergeant. “It was real early in the morning and they were just out there on the bleachers.”
When asked where soldiers are finding the space to have illicit rendezvous in tightly controlled privacy-free environments, Amy laughingly dismisses the question as silly, saying, “Everywhere! In the field, tents, Humvees, storage closets — and two people from my company were caught in a port-a-potty.”
But not all military sexual relations can be categorized as a fun frisky fling between mutually consenting partners. Amy explains, “Ninety percent of the guys hit on you as soon as you walk through the door. They don’t care that another 20 are trying at the same time. It’s a contest — most Army chicks are ugly and they get this syndrome like they are beauty queens. They just got out of basic and a lot of them aren’t used to so much male attention. They start to lose themselves … get carried away.”
She tells the story of a prior roommate whose boyfriend was in Iraq: “She slept in the bunk under me. One night this guy crawls in through the window, and when he leaves, about a half hour later, one of the other guys crawls in through the window.… He leaves, and the third comes about an hour after that … and then the fourth about 20 minutes later. But the nasty thing is, between them, she never got up, never washed up, and didn’t use a condom.”
Of course, these women are the exception.
Most women in the military are just trying to do their jobs, and like anyone else, have the occasional sexually fulfilling union — a position made almost entirely untenable at times by the constant sexual harassment and double standards imposed by their male counterparts. “If you file a claim of sexual harassment, you’re considered a troublemaker,” Amy says. “It goes into a file and halts your career. If you give it up, you’re a whore. If you abstain, you’re a bitch — and then they just make up rumors anyway. We just learn to deal with it. But there is one bright side,” she adds with a giggle. “At least I never have to carry anything.”
“Marriage Doesn’t Mean Anything”
With divorces on the rise and relationships increasingly buckling under the rigorous demands of the war on terror, it’s becoming apparent that despite the Army’s pro-family veneer, military life and relationships aren’t necessarily mutually compatible. “Having a monogamous relationship is hard even in the civilian world,” explains Kristina, a former instructor at a classified Army school where she started dating a student who eventually became her husband. “In the military, everything’s exaggerated. Even when you’re back in the States, 12-hour workdays are fairly normal.
Then there’s lots of training exercises where it’s weeks away from home. And if you’re in an integrated unit, that’s a lot of time with others of the opposite sex who are not your spouse. There’s opportunity.”
Katrina, an Air Force Master Sergeant and one of the few to experience a relatively calm, healthy relationship, adds, “Not only is there opportunity, but most people in the military are young, so they’re inexperienced with relationships.”
Ryan, the Georgia X-ray technician (who insisted we use his real name) agrees. “We went to this training deployment at West Point to teach cadets, and most of the guys were married or supposed to be in a steady relationship. I know two — two fucking dudes — who kept their pants on.” Pressed to explain, he adds, “It’s kind of a culture of infidelity. Everyone does it, so there’s no one around you to tell you it’s a bad idea.”
And Michael McClure (also his real name), a soldier who refused to even consider a relationship while in the Army, preferred a string of one-night stands. When asked how many people in the military had cheated, his response is immediate: “Everyone I knew, minus three.”
But it’s not just the troops who are flagrantly unfaithful. Ryan, who was stationed at Fort Stew art, Georgia, during a large-scale deployment of most base personnel, became intimately acquainted with a carefully guarded secret of support troops everywhere: Army wives. “They have nothing to do,” Ryan says. “Their men are deployed, and they’re stuck in these shit towns. They get bored. Fifteen months is a long time to go without sex, and most of them are young and inexperienced. They come in waves, and the ‘permanent party guys’ [the support units who are not deployed overseas] just have a feeding frenzy. First, it’s the wives in rocky relationships — they’re at the bar the day after their husbands deploy. Then about six months in, you start seeing the wives who were in good relationships.” He pauses to think, then adds, “They all end up at the bar. It’s part of the Army culture. Everyone’s cheating, so it becomes more acceptable.
“I was fucking this one girl, well, actually, four of us were — real hottie, auburn hair, blue eyes, big ol’ titties with these perfect little round nipples. Her boyfriend was in Iraq with the Third [Infantry Division], and there was his picture on the bed stand behind us — him with his arm around her, looking all sweet on some trip they had taken together. I used to stare at that picture as I fucked the shit out of her. He looked like a decent guy.”
Sergeant Rendez, whose own wife was caught in an illicit liaison with several high-ranking officers, has been on both ends. “Marriage doesn’t mean anything in the Army,” he says. “I’ve slept with more married women than women who weren’t married.”
And, of course, there are plenty of soldiers who don’t ask, and don’t tell, whose sex drives don’t always stay in the closet.
Bobby, a soldier with the 101st infantry division, recalls the initial invasion of Iraq, when they had just completed an intensive burning assault through the desert. “We didn’t even think about sex,” he says. “When we settled in Mosul and had our first chance for a rest, it all caught up with us. There was this airplane hangar with a back blast shield, and you could crawl under there. I went down looking for a place to get some privacy and jerk off, and there were these two infantry soldiers — dudes — just going at it, butt-fucking. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I guess they were trying to relax after all that had happened.”
Definitely not to form, we have no soldiering frame of reference to comment one way or the other about the facts as laid out — so to speak — in this article, so we will simply note that the author is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. His memoir, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green, was published earlier [in 2008] by Presidio Press. His next book, Border Crosser, [was] published by Random House in 2009. … Still, it could not have come as much of a surprise to the military that if you put men and women together for long enough, a good number of them are going to want to have sex. Pretty sure the “environment” has less to do with things than biology.
