New smoking restrictions on island

As of May 15, new smoking restrictions are being enforced on island. Current DoD and Army regulations prohibit smoking in the workplace and in government owned vehicles (to include water and and aircraft). Designated smoking areas must be at least fifty feet away from main building entrances (subject to how it's interpreted by some at Kwaj Five-O - some will whip out the tape measure). Of course, smoking is prohibited in BQ rooms (but allowed in family housing, though the threat of a very high ($1000) COOM (Change of Occupancy Maintenance) bill to remove the smoke smell at PCS deters most from doing so. (Another sticking point between the haves (the families) and the have nots (the BQ residents)). Some BQ rats who do smoke in their rooms (not me!) try new and novel ways to clear out the smoke, sometimes by smoking under the bathroom vent. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for the smell to permeate the air conditioning system in the BQs.There are a couple of cops on duty that even sniff around our BQ room entrances to try and catch smokers in flagrante delicto.

The new smoking restrictions effectively make Beautiful Downtown Kwaj a no-smoking zone (Except the laundry and AAFES warehouse, go figger!). It also covers the USAKA TOC (Tactical Operations Center), the Richardson Theater, Island Memorial Chapel, Religious Education Building and the Marshallese Cultural Center. Although the regulations provide for reasonable accommodation in establishing designated smoking areas, most are just a park bench or a picnic table out in the open, exposed to the elements. So... if it rains, you're shit outta luck. In certain areas, there is technically no way to hit the 50-foot no smoking rule, so you're in the clear only if you stand in the middle of the street. (For which KPD will gladly hand you a ticket for blocking the flow of traffic and creating a hazard.)

Another major complaint is the inability of the AAFES shoppette to stock cigarettes and other tobacco products, to include disposable lighters. Is it because of the sheer incompetence of whoever places the order for the barge? Is it because some of the merchandise 'falls off the truck' between the docks and the warehouses? Is it because the shelves are stocked to bare minimums and quickly run out on Marshallese Shopping Day? Is it because of a verbal order of the garrison commander (a rabid anti-smoker) to make it very difficult for smokers to indulge in their habit? No one really knows, or is willing to come up with a straight story, thus the conspiracy theories are rife on the rock. The favorite complaint going around with the smokers is that the new designated smoking area for the island is on the edge of the island's reef dropoff oceanside, if they make the anti-smoking crusade any stricter. Probably won't happen but quality of life on this rock has been eroding on the island for many years. We learn to live with it and drive on.