The Navy is cracking down on alcohol sales at its bases and mini-marts in order to tackle sexual assaults, the chief of naval operations said Friday.
“We are finding that somewhere between six out of 10 and seven out of 10 sexual assaults as reported involves alcohol, the majority … they’re alcohol-fueled,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert said at a Pentagon press briefing.
The sale hours for alcohol at base stores will be reduced, and store placement of alcohol will be changed to align with the Navy community’s efforts to tackle sexual assault, Adm. Greenert said, noting that some of the larger mini-marts on some bases sell alcohol until very early in the morning.
“What message are we sending here when we do that? So I said, look, let’s do the mainstream here,” he said. “It’s really [about] encouraging responsible use of alcohol and not pushing it out on our folks so hard.”
According to Pentagon statistics, there were an estimated 26,000 incidents of unwanted sexual contact in 2012 among the four services.
• Kristina Wong can be reached at kwong@washingtontimes.com.
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