Navy lifts drinking ban for Yokosuka

[unhappycamper]

Navy lifts drinking ban for Yokosuka
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Apr 7, 2008 11:09:55 EDT

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Five days after ordering all beer and alcohol pulled off store shelves and instituting a 10 p.m. off-base curfew, a top Navy commander is lifting the no-alcohol restrictions as of Monday night.

The latest revision to Navy liberty rules here, however, imposes a midnight cutoff for drinking alcohol on or off base, two hours earlier than what liberty rules traditionally had permitted.

Rear Adm. James D. Kelly, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Japan, had ordered the alcohol ban and a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for all Navy personnel attached to Yokosuka Naval Base.

“We are removing the curfew. That will go back into effect today,” Kelly said during a Monday afternoon interview at his office. “We are allowing alcoholic beverage sales, and we’re asking for people to maintain non-public consumption of alcohol between midnight and <6 a.m.>. So that is into play starting tonight.”

Kelly also ordered a weeklong standdown for Yokosuka-based sailors for training in preventing violence.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/04/navy_alcohol_040708w/