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Great American Smokeout 

Yet, despite the well-publicized health risks connected to smoking, the military has witnessed rising smoking rates among younger servicemembers in recent years, Tornberg said.

“Unfortunately, our smoking rate is higher than the civilian norm,” Tornberg acknowledged. “We have about a 32 percent smoking rate within the services.” Surveys show most military smokers are young people holding the ranks of private through staff sergeant, he said.

Servicemembers cite stress or boredom as reasons for taking up smoking, Tornberg said, noting that most military smokers pick up the habit after completing initial military training. Other servicemembers start smoking, he added, after they’ve been deployed overseas.

The military offers smoking cessation assistance through its health care facilities, Tornberg said, as well as a hotline to help smokers quit. The DoD-sponsored toll-free smoking cessation Quitline is available at 888-742-0742.

The military has been tracking servicemembers’ smoking habits for the past 40 years or so, Tornberg noted. The good news, he reported, is that overall smoking within the military has dramatically decreased over that time period.

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