Will Military's New Fraternization Rules Affect `Male Bonding?'

WASHINGTON - A new Pentagon policy that will bar Army officers from dating soldiers of a lower rank may also upset a more long-standing tradition: male bonding.

Both active duty and reserve Army officers worry that a new fraternization policy, expected to be approved soon by Defense Secretary William Cohen, could bar occasional socializing between junior officers and their sergeants.

Such activity is necessary, they argue, to forging camaraderie and building unit cohesion.

Among the victims could be such Army mainstays as "right-arm nights," which allow lieutenants to invite their sergeants to the officer's club; the occasional beer and poker game; as well as the periodic dinner with their spouses.

"What the frat policy will do to that is one of the sticking points," said one Army colonel. "It's going to cause a real problem in the Army."

Retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, a former Army chief of staff, said he fears the new fraternization policy "is going to be interpreted more than a thousand different ways."

"I don't want that to mean that lieutenant so-and-so can't go out to dinner with a noncommissioned officer or warrant officer," he said.

The new policy will bring the Army into line with the Marines, Navy and Air Force, which prohibit any personal ties between officers and enlisted ranks, regardless of their gender.

Cohen said in July that a consistent policy is necessary while the services are finding themselves stationed and fighting together in joint operations.

Since 1978, when women began entering the Army in greater numbers, the Army allowed officers and enlisted soldiers to date or have personal relationships, as long as they were not in the same chain of command. But Cohen said the policy created different standards that are "antithetical to good order and discipline and are corrosive to morale."

In June 1997, Cohen ordered policy reviews on fraternization and adultery, after a spate of sexual harassment cases involving trainers and young female recruits, principally at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. There were also several adultery cases, in particular those of Air Force Lt. Kelly Flinn and Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston.

The new policy will not affect existing marriages. There are an estimated 1,000 marriages between officers and enlisted personnel among the 480,000 on active duty, and 1,200 more marriages among the estimated 850,000 in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, according to Army officials.

In its proposal, the Army has asked for a one-year grace period for the estimated thousands of men and women who are still in personal relationships, according to Army sources. The time would allow those soldiers to "get married or end it," according to one officer.

But officers are increasingly worried that the policy may harm same-sex bonding at the company and platoon level, where lieutenants and sergeants work closely together in a muddy-boots environment. Bonds and camaraderie between junior officers and enlisted have traditionally been greater in the Army than in the other services, especially the Navy, where the confines of a ship dictate more formalized relationships.

Fraternization is punishable by a maximum of two years in prison. Enlisted personnel face a dishonorable discharge and officers face dismissal, an equivalent punishment that could similarly include a loss of future benefits.

But a Defense Department official disputes the contention that the Army will suffer under the more stringent fraternization rules. He predicted that such traditions as "right-arm nights" will continue, although more informal gatherings with noncommissioned officers may fall by the wayside.

Since there is only one first sergeant in a company, it would be appropriate to have a right-arm night, the official explained. But socializing with a "favorite" sergeant among several others would smack of favoritism and clearly violate the new rules.