12 Punished for Violating Liquor Rules : Culture: The move reflects a U.S. desire to avoid insulting Saudis.

Stringently enforcing a no-booze policy, military authorities have imposed heavy fines on 12 American servicemen and are considering more severe action against a dozen others found drunk or in possession of alcohol in this legally dry kingdom.

The actions under military law make clear the determination of American commanders to enforce round-the-clock abstinence from alcohol--unprecedented in a U.S. combat theater--even though it is a source of friction with troops, according to U.S. officials.

Among the Americans reprimanded and ordered to forfeit “substantial” wages were an Air Force major and a captain, the officials said. Both were held in violation of General Order No. 1, the stern teetotaling order issued at the outset of the U.S. buildup here.

Although alcohol is officially prohibited in Saudi Arabia, it is by no means unknown. Saudi authorities have long turned a blind eye to Western residents’ home-based manufacture of beer, wine and distilled liquor for personal consumption.

But in barring alcohol even from closed U.S. military compounds, the American commander here, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, decided that the United States should adopt a strict prohibition in deference to Saudi sensitivities, according to officials familiar with his thinking.

The officials said Schwarzkopf regards the prohibition and other strict curbs on soldiers’ conduct as the kind of test that the U.S. military may face with increasing frequency as its focus shifts from Europe to the Middle East and the Third World.

The no-drinking rule has prompted vocal discontent among soldiers, many of whom have told visitors that their desert duty would be far more tolerable if they were permitted an occasional drink, as were GIs in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

“How long can the Army expect a soldier to last without his beer?” an infantry lieutenant complained in an interview last week.

The disclosure of the disciplinary actions, however, marks the first indication that American soldiers had been found in violation of the ban.

A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command confirmed this week that “disciplinary action” had been taken against 12 servicemen for violation of the alcohol prohibition. In all cases, he said, penalties were imposed through a procedure for non-judicial punishment that stops short of a formal court-martial.

Such punishment can include forfeiture of pay, formal reprimands, extra duty and, for enlisted men, reduction in rank. The spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. David Knox, declined to specify what action had been taken.

Other informed U.S. sources, however, said the penalties included heavy forfeitures of pay for officers and the loss of rank for at least one enlisted man.

Some of the soldiers who violated the rule apparently were seeking to manufacture moonshine for their own use, the sources said. Others apparently smuggled alcohol into the country through the mail or military planes, or were able to buy liquor in local markets.

One knowledgeable American official said that the stocks of bootleg alcohol available in northern Saudi Arabia have swollen in recent weeks as Iraqi soldiers, in clandestine visits to Saudi outposts, offer alcohol in trade for food and other supplies. A Saudi official, however, said he heard no such reports.

The Central Command’s General Order No. 1 specifically “prohibits the introduction, possession, use, sale, transfer, manufacture or consumption of any alcoholic beverage” by military personnel and civilians serving with U.S. armed forces in Operation Desert Shield.

It provides an exemption, however, for thousands of American servicemen deployed to bases in the region outside Saudi Arabia, where local law permits alcohol to be consumed.