Many people like a few beers, and we all know people who like a lot. Its easy getting holier than thou, and castigating those who frequently turn up with smelly breath through beer, but isn't that a sign of character and professionalism, in that you can go out for a few beers / get slaughtered to a greater or lesser extent with your mates (as is an army tradition, no less), then fight through it in the morning. One alternative is for us to end up like the americans who are so PC they cannot operated unless in clinical environments.
Is it also a sign for many that we are over committed, overworked and liable to an excessive amount of individual stress. In barracks, doing 12 hour days knocking out staff work for people who really should do it themselves, then going back to the Mess, boredom, and the Bar. Many, like myself, have have elected that your family, who have followed us around enough postings to get to the point of breakdown, deserve a chance of stability. To make this happen and having chosen to buy a house many hours drive away and to put yourself in the Mess to only see them at weekends. I have had DV for 21 years, and have been a heavy drinker for most of this time. I have always managed to get into work on time, have always passed my fitness tests, and have had no fallout, except for a bit of blue breath in the mornings.
And for the record, I have always lied at DV interviews. It's too late to get me now though!
I am now going back to the Mess for my dinner, when the bar opens I will be first in, getting wrecked, cheers!