Army & Navy – MORALE: Personal Use Only

From Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall went an order calling attention to a IOOI regulation that forbids sale of hard liquor on military reservations, an all-but-forgotten rule. Prevailing practice in most officers’ clubs and messes* is for stewards to purchase liquor in the name of officer-members, earmark bottles for an officer’s personal use. Some clubs had grown lax in recent years, allowed unrestricted bar sales.

Dry Governor Leon C. Phillips of dry Oklahoma finally entered a protest to General Marshall against the earmarking practice. He was not quite on solid ground. But General Marshall did decide that the open bar must go. By his order, he deprived prohibitionists of ammunition and still left unblighted the camaraderie of officers’ clubs. All bar sales were halted, but the practice of earmarking was unaffected.

* Enlisted men can purchase only 3.2% beer on Army property.