FRATERNIZATION IN THE ARMY | DATING IN THE MILITARY | MILITARY FORBIDDEN RELATIONSHIPS

This explains the fraternization policy in detail in the Army


VIDEO LINK HERE: https://youtu.be/EqRD_J3FL8o

Relationships between Soldiers of different grade

a. The term "officer" used in this paragraph includes both commissioned and WOs unless otherwise stated. The term“noncommissioned officer” refers to a Soldier in the grade of corporal to command sergeant major/sergeant major. The term “junior enlisted Soldier” refers to a Soldier in the grade of private to specialist. The provisions of this paragraph apply to both relationships between Soldiers in the Active and Reserve Components and between Soldiers and personnel of other military Services. This policy is effective immediately, except where noted below, and applies to
opposite-gender relationships and same-gender relationships.

b. Soldiers of different grades must be cognizant that their interactions do not create an actual or clearly predictable perception of undue familiarity between an officer and an enlisted Soldier, or between an NCO and a junior-enlisted Soldier. Examples of familiarity between Soldiers that may become “undue” can include repeated visits to bars, nightclubs, eating establishments, or homes between an officer and an enlisted Soldier, or an NCO and a junior-enlisted
Soldier, except for social gatherings, that involve an entire unit, office, or work section. All relationships between Soldiers of different grade are prohibited if they—

(1) Compromise, or appear to compromise, the integrity of supervisory authority or the chain of command.

(2) Cause actual or perceived partiality or unfairness.3) Involve, or appear to involve, the improper use of grade or position for personal gain.

(4) Are, or are perceived to be, exploitative or coercive in nature.

(5) Create an actual or clearly predictable adverse impact on discipline, authority, morale, or the ability of the
command to accomplish its mission.

c. Certain types of personal relationships between officers and enlisted Soldiers, or NCOs and junior enlisted Soldiers, are prohibited. Prohibited relationships include the following:

(1) Ongoing business relationships between officers and enlisted personnel, or NCOs and junior enlisted Soldiers. This prohibition does not apply to landlord/tenant relationships or to one-time transactions such as the sale of an automobile or house, but does apply to borrowing or lending money, commercial solicitation, and any other type of ongoing financial or business relationship. Business relationships between NCOs and junior enlisted Soldiers that exist at the time this policy becomes effective and that were authorized under previously existing rules and regulations, are
exempt provided the individuals are not in the same unit or chain of command and the relationship does not meet the criteria listed in paragraph 4–14b(1 through 5). In the case of ARNG or U.S. Army Reserve personnel, this prohibition does not apply to relationships that exist due to their civilian occupation or employment.

(2) Dating, shared living accommodations other than those directed by operational requirements, and intimate or sexual relationships between officers and enlisted personnel, or NCOs and junior enlisted Soldiers. This prohibition does not apply to the following:

(a) When evidence of fraternization between an officer and enlisted member or an NCO and a junior enlisted Soldier prior to their marriage exists, their marriage does not preclude appropriate command action based on the prior fraternization. Commanders have a wide range of responses available including counseling, reprimand, order to cease, reassignment, administrative action, or adverse action. Commanders must carefully consider all of the facts and circumstances in reaching a disposition that is appropriate. Generally, the commander should take the minimum action necessary to ensure that the needs of good order and discipline are satisfied.

(b) Situations in which a relationship that complies with this policy would move into noncompliance due to a change in status of one of the members (for instance, a case where two junior enlisted members are dating and one is subsequently commissioned or selected to be a WO, commissioned officer, or NCO). In relationships where one of the enlisted members has entered into a program intended to result in a change in his or her status from enlisted to officer or junior enlisted Soldier to NCO, the couple must terminate the relationship permanently or marry within one year of the date of the appointment or the change in status occurs.

(c) Personal relationships between members of the National Guard or Army Reserve, when the relationship primarily exists due to civilian acquaintanceships, unless the individuals are on AD (other than AT), on FTNGD (other than AT), or serving as a dual status military technician.

(d) Personal relationships between members of the RA and members of the National Guard or Army Reserve when the relationship primarily exists due to civilian association and the RC member is not on AD (other than AT), on FTNGD (other than AT), or serving as a dual status military technician.

(e) Prohibited relationships involving dual status military technicians, which were not prohibited under previously existing rules and regulations, are exempt until 1 March 2015.

(f) Soldiers and leaders share responsibility for ensuring that these personal relationships do not interfere with good order and discipline. Commanders will ensure that personal relationships that exist between Soldiers of different grades emanating from their civilian careers will not influence training, readiness, or personnel actions.

(3) Gambling between officers and enlisted personnel, or NCOs and junior enlisted Soldiers.

d. These prohibitions are not intended to preclude unit based normal team building or activity based on interaction which occurs in the context of community based, religious, or fraternal associations such as scouting, youth or adult sports leagues or teams; membership in organizations such as the Masons or Elks; religious activities including chapel, church, synagogue, mosque, or religious education; Family gatherings; unit-based social functions; or athletic events.

e. All military personnel share the responsibility for maintaining professional relationships. However, in any relationship between Soldiers of different grade or rank, the senior member is generally in the best position to terminate or limit the extent of the relationship. Nevertheless, all members may be held accountable for relationships that violate this policy.

f. Commanders should seek to prevent inappropriate or unprofessional relationships through proper training and personal leadership. Commanders have a wide range of responses available should inappropriate relationships occur. These responses may include counseling, reprimand, order to cease, reassignment, or adverse action. Potential adverse action may include official reprimand, adverse evaluation report(s), nonjudicial punishment, separation, bar to reenlistment,
promotion denial, demotion, and courts martial. Commanders must carefully consider all of the facts and circumstances in reaching a disposition that is warranted, appropriate, and fair

FULL REGULATION @ http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r600_20.pdf

ARMY LIFE ON BASE: MILITARY PET POLICY

If you are wondering how it's like to have a pet in the Military specifically the Army, Here is a helpful video that summarizes the DO's and DONT's

Lieutenant creates military-themed game to rival Cards Against Humanity

“What really killed Patton?” On trivia night, you answer that he died on Dec. 21, 1945, from injuries suffered in a Dec. 8 car crash. But when playing the newly invented game Disgruntled Decks — a Cards Against Humanity-styled party game — your answer is decidedly different. One might instead be rewarded for answering that “3rd Cavalry Regiment’s drivers training program,” “SHARP training,” or “The pulsating and unbearable girthiness of the Green Weenie" killed Patton. Disgruntled Decks is a hilarious — and at times hilariously offensive — brainchild of 1st Lt. Matthew Coble, who wanted to adapt Cards Against Humanity for a military audience. He built up a community online, wrote a bunch of cards, conferred with CAH a representative to avoid copyright issues, and Tuesday launched a Kickstarter campaign to put at least 500 packs into production. It took him less than 24 hours to hit his $15,000 Kickstarter goal; he now has about $20,000.

 

 “I expected it to be funded eventually, but I didn’t expect all the support and general excitement around the project,” said Coble, who wants the game to be both funny and cathartic. “It’s more than just a game with funny things on cards. It’s about bringing conversation through humor," he said. In Cards Against Humanity, each player holds a number of cards with random, zany or crass words and phrases. One player draws a prompt card, and the other players submit, face down, the card in their hand that best fits the prompt. Hilarity ensues. You generally play until whenever because no one cares about the score. It’s billed “a party game for horrible people.” That kind of humor, seeing the funny and the irony in the nominally ugly or absurd, jibes with a military mindset, Coble said. “As military personnel, you go through bad, terrible situations or situations that bring you together; that tends to harden people. Military humor tends to be a little bit more raw and vulgar than standard civilian humor,” Coble said. But while maintaining the inescapable edginess of CAH, he said he tried to limit the number of “cards that have just raw shock humor.” “Even though some cards are really vulgar, I don’t want just the shock humor that makes people gasp,” Coble said. “It gets people talking about their time in service, bringing up subjects they aren’t comfortable bringing up. It’s a way to bring people together and talk about their shared experiences.” In that spirit he's also partnering with wounded warrior organizations so that sales help soldiers as well.

“We’re still a nation at war. There’s still a lot of people that need smiles on their faces, there’s a lot of people that need heeling, there’s a lot of people that need laughter,” Coble said. Coble said his bosses are aware of the game and his off-duty efforts, and he stressed to Army Times that the game in no way reflects the views of the Army or Defense Department. The VA and 130-degree port-o-potties Coble, an executive officer for Intelligence & Security Command, always liked playing creative word games like CAH and Apples to Apples with his buddies. He said the topic of a military-themed game would sometimes come up. After searching the internet and finding no such thing, he decided to start mocking up his own card ideas in October. The Ohio native reflected on his seven years of service: basic training, deployments, and his transition to officer ranks in the Green to Gold program. His lieutenant rank takes heavy fire, which may reflect the CAH spirit of taking no prisoners, but he also quickly notes he was prior enlisted. He then developed an online community including a Facebook page started in November. As he wrote his own ideas, he also asked people on social media to offer their own. “People really want to slam the VA,” Coble said. “Also there was a lot of stuff about deployment.

A lot of really weird things about port-o-potties: 130 degree port-o-potties in the Iraq or Afghanistan desert.” As with CAH, some cards are ridiculous, with non-PC shock value infused. (“Afghan farm animals and the men who love them.”) Some are silly (“An LT on LT slap fight.”) Others are just standard Army irritants (“PT belts,” "Death by Powerpoint" or “lieutenants”) awaiting the perfectly ridiculous prompt (“In the newest Tom Hanks war porn, an infantry platoon must overcome ___ to accomplish their mission”). “This has been absolutely fun. I used to sit around and PhotoShop funny pictures for my friends, so I get to do something I like: generate funny content,” said Coble. So what do the makers of Cards Against Humanity think? Early in the process, a representative from CAH contacted him and talked him through the finer points of not infringing on their intellectual property. “They’ve been awesome,” said Coble of a company whose leaders are known to pull such stunts as sending poop to 30,000 people on Black Friday (to be fair, they placed an order for some “bullshit”) and sending a 55-gallon drum of lubricant to the Oregon militiamen amidst an armed takeover of federal property (to compliment the sex toys sent by others).

“ There are other unofficial expansion decks out there, Coble said. Plus he noted that CAH didn’t invent word association games. In short, that concept alone is too vague (not to mention old) to trademark or copyright in and of itself. Among efforts to differentiate his game he used a typewriter font, invasion star logo and cards colored olive drab and light gray, all throwbacks to World War II. Prompt cards are “Mission Cards” and responses are “Course of Action” cards. They do remain the same standard size so the 300-card deck can work either within a bigger CAH deck or by itself, Coble said. And while awareness has grown faster than he’d hoped, he also has big ideas for the future. He points out that well over a million vets of the last two wars alone create a large market for the game. The game’s name Disgruntled Decks, plural, stems from the fact that he’d eventually like to see Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force versions. Or as one Course of Action card calls it, "Endless Mission Creep."