Drug Testing for Officers

Although Summers is not a former Navy officer, I was not at all surprised to read that he was an officer. His column states that should an officer be subjected to a random drug test, the officer’s dignity would be abused, implying that enlisted people have no dignity. There is not an officer in today’s armed forces who would be where he or she is if it weren’t for the people working for them. Summers goes on to say, “But to treat all officers as potential drug users and cheats is unconscionable.” In his view, it is OK to assume that the enlisted people who join the services to try to better themselves while serving their country are potential drug users and cheats.

I’ll bet Summers would condone random drug testing of commercial airline pilots, train engineers, air traffic controllers or any others whose occupation puts the lives of many in their hands, but to ask an officer who, as he puts it, holds the firing keys to a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile, would be “unconscionable.”

KEN D. KELLER

Apple Valley