Something that needs to be expressed more frequently is that sexual promiscuity in service was not willful misconduct when we were in. I assume that is still the case but I don’t keep up on that kind of thing. It may come to pass that with the end of DADT and permissiveness of having gays openly serving, that we will experience an uptick in HIV/HCV cases. That remains to be seen as the military hasn’t yet completed the changeover.

     I have had Service officers who profess that it is willful misconduct to come down with the clap in service. My MOPH rep. even went so far as to say tattoos were, but we know that isn’t the case. There’s not enough room at Fort Leavenworth to incarcerate 75% of the enlisted Navy and Marines who were guilty of that.  I won’t go into it any further than to wonder why you’d put something permanent on you when you’re inebriated. It shouldn’t come as a surprise when you wake up and find it. The problem seems to arise 20 years later when your spouse wonders who the chick with big tits named Patsy is/was.

     Getting back to clap and all things VD, we can blame it on alcohol just as easily as being caught out without protection. I do know that you were welcome to help yourself to as many protective devices as you desired when I was in sunny Southeast Asia. I and many of my friends availed ourselves of this generous policy to install them on the ends of our CAR-16s, the occasional Thompsons, M-79s and especially shotguns.  They worked very well for the purpose. I suppose they were also useful for preventing the spread of disease. I had several incidents of “non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU) which I attributed to failure to observe that protocol. What? You think Mr. NOD was a complete saint? I’m not proud of it, but I foolishly depended on ladies of the night having a current, up to date, stamped VD card saying they were free of these things. Alcohol can impair your eyesight from what I have read.

     The military used to do everything in their power short of confining us to base to reduce the numbers. We had lectures and photo slide shows of the horrors of it. Somehow that never dimmed our desires. When I was eventually seconded to Air America there were no lectures. They really couldn’t punish me for it even though that may have been their policy. I was still technically in the Air Force regardless of the fact that my ID said United States Agency for International Development. The fiction was that I was a “French teacher”.  We had no bases per se, just operating locations. The prostitution trade was 160 klics south in Vientiane. One did not consort with the local Hmong maidens at risk of becoming married to them. Shotgun weddings were still in high fashion for any so foolish and our government did little or nothing if we were caught in flagrento delecto.

     I have seen many ratings at the BVA that were denied at the RO under the mistaken belief that it was willful misconduct or “less likely than not”. ROs are fond of denying Hep. even  if  your STD occurred in service and was fully documented. Their rationale is that it is very rare.  Conversely, if it happened after service and you mentioned it in your risk factors questionnaire, VA will focus on this risk being the most salient to the exclusion of all others except drugs. VA doesn’t explain the dichotomy of European and Asian STDS being HCV-free nor do they explain how VD in America is rife with it. The below decision is an example of this.

     So, with this in mind, if you do have SMRs that document Winky getting dirty, you should list it as a risk factor. You won’t win at the RO, but you sure will at the BVA. They may call it the benefit of the doubt, but who cares? Service connection is a bitch under the best of circumstances, so all’s fair in love and war (no pun intended).

http://www.va.gov/vetapp11/Files2/1118033.txt