Air Force Community - Air Force Times

Vision of a smoke-free Air Force might be just a pipe dream

An airman who hates cigarettes told me he wants a smoke-free Air Force.

He believes it can happen.

His two-part plan to eliminate all smoking:

1. The boss orders a ban.

2. Everybody obeys the order.

This airman did not want to be identified. “I’d be glad to be quoted by name about Iraq, immigration or abortion, but not this,” he said.

Many in the Air Force would like to get rid of tobacco use. Some, like me, are recovering addicts. I smoked until 1994.

The advantages of a smoke-free environment are obvious. Smoking kills. It’s expensive. It can alienate people.

Other reasons may be less apparent. “It seems that supervisors who smoke get along with and favor smokers when it comes to discipline issues or better projects,” said the airman who contacted me. “After all, they get so much more face time than the nonsmokers.”

Often, private companies ban smoking on their property, even outdoors — even inside an employee’s own car while in their parking lot. Some companies won’t hire people who smoke at home, miles away from the office.

“It should be a simple matter to fix this,” the airman said. “You just issue an order that, beginning next month, smoking is prohibited everywhere on Air Force property, period.” Such an order banned smoking on Air Force aircraft more than a decade ago.

After all, this is a military organization, right? Your commander or the chief of staff issues an order and everybody follows it, right?

Actually, it doesn’t work that way.

In a conversation about a different topic, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley told me that not even the highest-ranking general can always produce results merely by issuing an order.

For one thing, few people, including me, want to make smoking illegal. That would be too much government. But if we can ban driving while using a cell phone on most military bases, can’t we ban puffing cigarettes there, too?

If our government is going to spend more money than it receives each year — borrowing from our grandchildren and from overseas bankers — isn’t it time for military commissaries to stop selling tax-free tobacco products?

And what about appearances? Air Force Instruction 36-2903, in Section 1.3, “Individuals’ Responsibilities,” dictates that members must not “Smoke/use smokeless tobaccos, drink or eat while walking in uniform.”

Military leaders, and especially military health professionals, constantly use powers of persuasion to encourage smokers to quit and to extol the benefits of a smoke-free workplace. Couldn’t commanders go just a little further? By all means, smoke at home if you must. But can’t we get rid of smoking on bases, even outdoors?

It wouldn’t be easy. Smokers have rights. But in a perfect world, no one would indulge in this health-wrecking habit.

The writer, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of “Air Combat,” a history of fighter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.