In a digital age where pilots can control death-dealing drones from behind their computer screens, some soldiers in Afghanistan are using technology for a different purpose: hooking up.
Although military commanders forbid U.S. servicemen and women from having sex outside of marriage while stationed in war zones, hundreds of soldiers have posted racy ads on craigslist looking for covert encounters, the Marine Corps Times reported Sunday.
The paper reported that officers as well as troops have been posting ads in the site’s ‘Casual Encounters’ section looking for love partners.
The ads cited in the article include one posted by a soldier at Camp Bastion that read “I am married and looking for some companionship while here” — and was accompanied by an XXX-rated photo that would make Anthony Weiner proud.
Lonely servicemen aren’t the only ones posting on the hook-up site: Military investigators have been posing as sexually-frustrated soldiers in an attempt to catch rule-breakers, the Times reported.
One lance corporal was busted down to private first class and had to forfeit over $1,600 in pay after he was arrested upon showing up for what he thought was a date with another man, the Times reported.
“I made the post on Craigslist, and an undercover member of NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) responded to it,” the lance corporal, who remained anonymous in the article, said.
“Once we met, we started walking toward a Logistics Support Area,” the soldier told the Times. “As we were approaching a vehicle, a bunch of people got out, surrounded us, drew pistols and told me to get on the ground.”
Soliders posting online ads looking for sex is not technically against military law, but the Marine Corps Times reported that many commanders find ways to make it a punishable offense anyway. Commanders can slap soldiers with charges that include adultery or soliciting prostitution, or by enforcing a catch-all regulation banning actions “to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces,” the Marine Corps Times reported.