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Army hopes to keep partiers on the post

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 15, 2007

FORT STEWART, Ga. - On weekends, Army Pfc. Keith Smith used to drive 45 miles to Savannah to find a nightclub with hip-hop music, single women and a bar open well past midnight.

The 24-year-old soldier would often have too much fun to make it back to the barracks. "There's been times I went to Savannah and had to sleep in the car because I didn't want to get a DUI," the New Yorker said.

But now he can do his drinking and dancing just blocks from his Fort Stewart billet, without even leaving the Army post.

Deciding too many soldiers were dying behind the wheel after partying out of town, Fort Stewart commanders spent $300,000 turning a defunct sports bar on the Army post into Rocky's, a bar and nightclub that aims to mimic Savannah's hippest night spots.

Knowing booze and dance tunes wouldn't be enough, commanders also eased security restrictions at the post's front gate to encourage civilians - namely women, who get free admission between 10 p.m. and midnight Fridays and Saturdays - to party at Rocky's, which opened in November.

"We never want to glamorize alcohol, but we've got to be realistic about this," said Col. Todd Buchs, garrison commander. "If we know they're going to drink, let's provide a safe place for them to drink so we know they're going to be alive the next morning."

Traffic deaths among soldiers have alarmed the Army since soldiers began returning home from Iraq in the 2003-04 fiscal year, when the number of soldiers killed in car crashes jumped 28 percent over the previous year. A total of 434 Army soldiers have died in wrecks outside combat zones since October 2003.

Alcohol was a factor in the deaths of at least seven of the 13 Fort Stewart soldiers killed on the roads in fiscal year 2006, Buchs said.

Fort Stewart has gone more than 140 days without a traffic death. Buchs said Rocky's has helped extend that streak.

"It's an innovative step in recognizing where their risk is," said Lt. Col. Laura Loftus, chief of the Army's Driving Task Force at Fort Rucker, Ala., which monitors soldier traffic accidents.

[Last modified February 15, 2007, 01:32:06]