levels of smoking have led to significant costs to the Department of Defense. The costs of smoking among US military health care system beneficiaries have been estimated to be more than $900 million per year in 1995, with $584 million in direct health care costs and $346 million in lost productivity among active duty personnel. Suicide, which accounts for 13% of fatalities in the military, has also been tied to smoking, as the risk of suicide among military men was found to increase significantly with the number of cigarettes smoked daily. Smoking also affects training costs as smokers are more likely to be discharged during training, and are associated with $18 million per year in excess training costs for the US Air Force, and over $130 million per year for all service branches. Note that the figures regarding smoking and suicide and manpower losses during training may represent more of a symptomatic relationship than a causative one. Many discharges during basic training result from a series of minor infractions, punished administratively as opposed to by courts-martial, which are seen as an indicator that the trainee cannot or will not adjust to military life, rather than any single incident or serious violation of regulations. With smoking now prohibited in basic training, being caught smoking, and perhaps even being caught in the possession of cigarettes, is such an offense which smokers are obviously at risk for while nonsmokers are not. Regarding suicide, the figures showing increased rates of smoking and resumption of smoking among those deployed indicates that smoking may be a reaction to an indicator of increased stress, and a person who is potentially suicidal would obviously be under a more than typical degree of stress, so increased smoking may be an indicator of that excessive stress rather than a cause for increased risk of suicide. Also, a higher rate of smoking among those discharged during training may also be indicative of individuals for whom training is more than normally stressful, and such persons would likely experience more difficulty in successfully completing training than one who is not unusually (compared to his/her peers) stressed by it. In 2008 unauthorized smoking and improper storage of chemicals caused major damage to USS George Washington (CVN-73). The Department of Defense hoped to lower rates of tobacco use to 12% by the end of 2010. To achieve their goal, Pentagon health experts urged then-Defense Secretary