Military Affairs

By MARK THOMPSON

The Army, under pressure to make its fraternization policy march in lockstep with those of its sister services, last week gave its uniformed lovers a year to break up or get married. The Army has been the only service that allowed relationships between officers and enlisted people, so long as the pair were not in the same chain of command.

As the military increasingly deploys in joint operations--those involving personnel from more than one service--the disparity between the Army's liberal fraternization policy and those of other branches has begun to cause friction within the ranks.

So last Tuesday, Army headquarters sent out a message declaring that "dating, shared living accommodations, and intimate or sexual relationships" between officers and enlisted personnel must end by March 1, 2000. The only way to keep such alliances going beyond that date, the new policy commands, is to get married by then. A sort of shotgun wedding, with a bayonet.

--M.T.