P.M. BRIEFING : Non-Alcohol O'Doul's Gulf-Bound

L.A. Times Archives

Sept. 10, 1990 12 AM PT

<i> From Times Wire Services</i>

ST. LOUIS —

Anheuser-Busch Inc. announced today that it will donate 22,000 cases of O’Doul’s non-alcoholic beer to U.S. military personnel serving in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.

A spokesman for the U.S. armed services welcomed the gift. The shipment will give each serviceman or woman on duty an average of a six-pack.

The troop supply of O’Doul’s is expected to arrive in about two weeks, said Mike Roarty, executive vice president of the brewery. It is being brewed and packaged at the company’s plant in Tampa, Fla., before being trucked to Charleston, S.C., for loading aboard a ship.

Army and Air Force supply officials contacted Anheuser-Busch last week to check on the availability of a non-alcoholic beer for American troops in the desert.

Real beer could not be shipped because of religious and governmental restrictions forbidding alcohol consumption in Saudi Arabia.